Multiple Man

This documentary takes us on a journey of discovery of China through the eyes of the employees on the train that runs between Wuchang and Beijing. We join the team of young women responsible for the well-being of passengers, and share their daily life in all its playfulness and serenity, even if discipline is omnipresent. Behind every word, every look, a new being to get to know.

We witness the race for marriage of thousands of young people, wanting at all costs to escape conscription, then we are transported to the war factories and we thus witness the difficulties of work in this place. Then it's the Italian campaign in 1943 and, finally, the return to Quebec where readjustment to civilian life proves more difficult than it seems. These events are experienced and told by the voice of a young man.

Twenty-four year old Montréaler Caroline works as a sales representative for a telephone company. She's married to Claude, the two who have a young son. On their fourth wedding anniversary, about which Claude seems to have forgot or doesn't care, Caroline seems unhappy with her life, although she approaches it with a certain efficiency. When she was growing up, she, like any girl, had several ideas which changed all the time of what she wanted to do with her life when she grew up. But her life hasn't seemed to come close to any of those dreams. Can Claude or anyone else reassure Caroline about her life, especially on this milestone?

One day in a kindergarten classroom at Van Horne Public School in Montreal. The teacher encourages children to turn their curiosity into questions and organizes group activities and play periods.

A young man runs from the voices in his head into the arms of an elderly cowgirl.

In 1942 even after a formal promise from the Liberal Party of Canada in the last election: "Never the Conscription", the Canadian Government vote a Conscription Law. In Quebec where the French population was mostly unanimous against the obligation to go to war, seen as a Great-Britain Government request, many young men fled to the woods or in clandestineness.

This short documentary is about Mike Duff, a Canadian motorcycle racer, and the sport that almost killed him. After a near-fatal crash in Japan and extensive surgery and therapy, Duff returned to racing to claim two victories in Canadian races. Though the sport takes its toll on the lives of his friends and fellow competitors annually, the racer explains he can’t give up just yet – not before winning a world championship.

"Labyrinth" is a groundbreaking multi-screen 45-minute presentation produced for Chamber III of the Labyrinth at Expo 67 in Montreal, using 35 mm and 70 mm film projected simultaneously on multiple screens. A film without commentary in which multiple images, sometimes complementary, sometimes contrasting, draw the viewer through the different stages of a labyrinth. The tone of the film moves from great joy to wrenching sorrow; from stark simplicity to ceremonial pomp. It is life as it is lived by the people of the world, each one, as the film suggests, in a personal labyrinth. Re-released in 1979 as "In the Labyrinth" by the National Film Board of Canada in a 21-minute single projection format.

This short, silent film captures a Sunday afternoon at a community skating rink. Iconic Quebec director Gilles Carle has the camera follow toddlers learning to skate, young girls flashing their skates and boys decked out in the colours of their favourite hockey teams. A picture perfect moment on a bright winter's day.

A professional race car driver's obsession with winning races causes communication problems between him and his wife that threaten to separate them.

Sharon and her ten year old son Bayo live in Tickle Cove on the shores of Bonavista Bay, Newfoundland like generations of their family have before them. Sharon hates her life there. She dreams of moving to Toronto - where her now deceased mother was from - to eke out a better life for her and Bayo. She even leaves her big black packed trunk in the middle of the foyer as a symbolic gesture that that move will soon be happening. She equally hates her fisher father, Phillip Longlan, for subjecting her and her mother to life there. Phillip, who spends most of his time on a commercial fishing boat, only provides Sharon enough money to survive but not to achieve that dream of leaving. Bayo, however, doesn't want to leave, especially leave his grandfather behind. He wants to live and die by the sea, much like his deceased father, who he never knew.

An aimless young woman is sent home from school with nothing to do. Drifting through the streets of Paris, she comes across a variety of people.

The history of the roles of women in Quebec society, beginning with the women shipped from France to the New World by the King to populate the colony with the men already there, and ending with the modern career woman.

This documentary takes us on a journey of discovery through the words of young girls, members of the work team at Wuchang station, who spontaneously answer the filmmaker's questions. In these words and confidences, a concern emerges: to be first and foremost at the service of the Chinese people. Collective life takes priority over individual or family life. And when you get married, you agree to see your spouse only when their respective workplaces and schedules coincide...