Chef.fe.s de brousse

Ten years after an enormous open-pit gold mine began operations in Malartic, the hoped-for economic miracle is nothing more than a mirage. Filmmaker Nicolas Paquet explores the glaring contrast between the town’s decline and the wealth of the mining company, along with the mechanisms of an opaque decision-making system in which ordinary people have little say. Part anthropological study, part investigation into the corridors of power, Malartic addresses the fundamental issue of sustainable and fair land management.

As if perched atop the majestic Rocher Percé, a stranded stone ship, this film takes an innovative look at the Gaspé Peninsula, shaped by nature, culture, and history. “Two parts geology and one part magic,” the story focuses on the splendor of Percé, which has always been surrounded by fishermen, geologists, poets, and botanists.

"Sugar Shack Tales" unfolds the stories of those solitary men who keeps the spring ritual alive. They run the buckets and boil the maple sap in their beautiful and old shacks surrounded by a mystical atmosphere.

Hunters cut themselves off from the digital world for a while. They retreat into the forest, a disconnected territory. But a growing constellation of network access zones is threatening this healthy break.

In Malartic, in Abitibi, people are driven away from their land, from the towns they built with their own hands. Then comes the gaping hole, the scar on the Earth: the open-pit mine. And the company is paying for it all with nothing more than the promise of a shining future.