Lessons on Life

In this spectacular feature-length documentary, oceanographer Jacques Cousteau and an NFB crew sail up the St. Lawrence River to the Great Lakes on board the specially equipped vessel, the Calypso. They explore the countryside from their helicopter and plumb the depths of the waters in their diving saucer. They encounter shipwrecks, the Manicouagan power dam, Niagara Falls, the locks of the St. Lawrence Seaway and an underwater chase with caribou.

Welcome to the magnificent yet unheralded world of choral music. A world inhabited by exceptional beings who have the capacity to experience joy from a single musical note. Individuals who partake in remarkable efforts to unveil that dream of beauty which preoccupies each and every one of them. You may notice them singing anywhere and everywhere: at the wheel, in the shower, even in the kitchen. But above all, they sing together, men and women of all ages and various backgrounds, transformed by the radiant glory of song, and united under the banner of L'Ensemble vocal d'Outremont. Music is at the centre of their universe and gives them the intense feeling of belonging to the human race. Especially as the big night approaches and the collective dream of perfect harmony is but a breath away.

A lonely woman spends the winter isolated and reminiscing about the past as she waits for her husband to return from a prolonged absence.

Four female friends from Egypt with opposing religious, social, and political views listen to one another's perspectives and argue openly, without ever breaking the bond that unites them.

Jacques Leduc directed and co-scripted (with Jacques Marcotte) this Canadian-French co-production, a drama about an aging Montreal woman, Caroline (Annie Girardot), in her 60s and contemplating impending death. She destroys old correspondence, cleans her apartment by putting furniture in the street, and looks back on her life (as revealed via flashbacks and a film crew interviewing her daughters). Caroline's brief marriage to an Englishman gave her one daughter, successful businesswoman Rachel (Domini Blythe), and an affair with a rebel in the Congo resulted in her other daughter Myriam (Sheila Rose). Further memories rise to the surface when Caroline joins her long-time friend Maureen (France Castel) for a black-tie reception where their community work in Africa brings them an Order of Canada award.

The story of a couple set during the summer before the October Crisis in 1970 Quebec and after it, and how they are affected by that fateful event.

Today it is the city of Montreal, but 3 centuries ago the tiny band of missionary founders called it Ville-Marie, the holy city of Mary. This film goes back to its beginning and those who felt called to plant an oasis of Christianity in the North American wilderness. In an imaginative, at times almost surrealistic, way the film recalls the highborn company from France, and shows what survives of Ville-Marie in the Montreal of today.

In a poor eastern quarter of Montreal, a restaurant is dedicated for the poors only: le Chic Resto Pop. It used the surplus of some merchants to offer cheap meals. The young people who work there for free get a lot of satisfaction in their work in spite of the difficulties. The movie is build around six songs written by them.

In this feature documentary, a Haitian, exiled in Canada for twenty years, returns to his country after the departure of Jean-Claude Duvalier. Through his encounters with former friends, professors and colleagues, the face of this newfound Haiti gradually takes shape… Shot in Haiti after the fall of the Duvalier regime, this film, beyond a simple observation, shares with us the hopes of the Haitian people as well as their fears and uncertainties regarding this country that has yet to be built.

The six members of the working-class Bessette family each mimic a certain stage of the life of the iconic Brother André and are an incarnation of his values and characteristics.

Short fictional film recounting the adventures of a gang of young boys with more than one trick up their sleeve. Together, they plan bad things to raise enough money to buy their dream radio station. To make matters worse, they have part of their nest egg stolen, although it is well hidden in a cabin. An investigation will follow to find the culprit of the "crime". Will they get their money back?

Two teenage girls go to winter carnival in Quebec City for the first time. Their ambiguous, tentative relation with a young boy brings both of them the sweet intensity and disillusionment of first love. One of four film sketches on the problems of adolescents facing the adult world in the 1960s included in the anthology film That Tender Age (La fleur de l'âge, ou Les adolescentes). The three other sketches were directed by Jean Rouch, Hiroshi Teshigahara, and Gian Vittorio Baldi.

A docudrama on the closing of the town of Schefferville. When Raoul loses his job at the mine because the operations are ending, he's been settled there for ten years with Carmen and their son. They're now forced to leave the town, leaving behind the traces of an ephemeral prosperity.

A 30-year old man is forced out of his inert and absent-minded existence when it's complicated by the three women in his life.

The film investigates explicit representations of female sexuality by women, exploring the pragmatic and philosophical questions they pose, with emphasis on the ways in which the creation of women-friendly pornography confronts and alters the expectations of male consumers. Ultimately, Nitoslawska is concerned with how we comprehend desire, gender and identity, how we understand and represent its history, and the resulting affect on culture and human relations.