Fernand Dansereau: In a Lifetime

A documentary portrait of aspiring actors from the Conservatoire d’art dramatique de Montréal. Over an extended period, Bachir Bensaddek followed ten students subjected to a rigorous workload and drawn into the endless cycle of auditions. We watch them live their lives as they struggle to carve out a difficult path in a world where solidarity exists alongside competition, and where the playful joy of theatre collides with the urgent need to build a career.

In a quest to rediscover the spiritual values of his own people, an African filmmaker from the Gourmantche tribe of Burkina Faso visits an Aboriginal band, the Atikamekw of northern Quebec. The resulting documentary is a dialogue between those who divine the future in the sand with those who use snow-encased sweat lodges to reconnect with the spiritual world.

A filmmaker, fascinated by the power of the camera and obsessed with the theories of Russian film pioneer Dziga Vertov, decides to get a camera eye to replace the real eye he lost as a child. The visionary quest begins on the operating table, where a surgeon grafts a prototype ocular implant into his eye socket. Seeking a microscopic camera that could be incorporated into his artificial eye so he could secretly film whatever he sees, the filmmaker explores the futuristic technology that could make this possible, while revisiting chapters of his own past.

A blend of drama and documentary, this film follows several people caught up in the turmoil of the modern world. The drama centres on a woman who has burned out and who holds up her own despair – and her attempts to rebuild her life – as a mirror to the rest of us. With a blend of gravity and humour, Sylvie Groulx's film shows the absurdity of a society dedicated to the cult of speed at all costs.