My Salinger Year

The night of July 6, 2013, changed the small, picturesque town of Lac-Mégantic in Quebec’s Eastern Townships in unfathomable and horrifying ways. In a matter of minutes, 47 people were killed instantly, and more than 2,000 were displaced when an unattended train derailed nearby. What exactly transpired that night?

Two well-known Quebec artists (filmmaker Jacques Godbout and playwright René-Daniel Dubois) look at the Battle of the Plains of Abraham. Whose version of this historic event should prevail? Is history best served by documentary or fiction? We also meet Baron Georges Savarin de Marestan and Andrew Wolfe-Burroughs, direct descendants of Montcalm and Wolfe, both of whom died in the battle that would give birth to Canada and to the province of Quebec.

Lac-Mégantic investigates one of the worst oil train tragedies in history: a foreseeable catastrophe ignited by corporate and political negligence.

A young refugee of the Sudanese Civil War who wins a lottery for relocation to the United States with three other lost boys. Encountering the modern world for the first time, they develop an unlikely friendship with a brash American woman assigned to help them, but the young man struggles to adjust to this new life and his feelings of guilt about the brother he left behind.

Alain and Virginie are getting married today, but Alain is on the verge of a nervous breakdown. The impending reunion of his divorced parents has plunged him into deep anxiety, only made worse by the shady schemes of his cousin and best man Edouard, who seems determined to get him involved. The groom now has only one ambition: to survive the happiest day of his life.

When her husband dies unexpectedly, Élizabeth’s life is turned upside down. In addition to her two teenage sons, she now also has to take care of a farm replete with seasonal workers and her panic-prone in-laws, to whom she has never really been able to warm.

During a harsh Montréal winter, an elementary-school class is left reeling after its teacher commits suicide. Bachir Lazhar, a charismatic Algerian immigrant, steps in as the substitute teacher for the classroom of traumatized children. All the while, he must keep his personal life tucked away: the fact that he is seeking political refuge in Québec – and that he, like the children, has suffered an appalling loss.

During the summer of 1968, Leon, a 10-year-old boy, navigates the hardships of young love, his lunatic mother's whims, and his urges to vandalize the house of his neighbors.

Christophe agrees to be filmed by his roommate Stéphane, while he is searching for a meaningful engineering job. Since he voluntarily resigned his job when he was to be moved to quality control, he does not get unemployment benefits, and goes to classes on how to contest the decision.

Michel is a Belgian inventor. He cares for his father, a paralysed writer, is married to a Congolese woman and is the father of an interracial child whom he reassures as to his parentage. He discovers at the age of 41 that he was adopted, actually having been born in Sainte-Cécile, Quebec. In the summer of 2000, he travels to Quebec, supposedly to sell some of his inventions. While on a near-impossible quest to find his birth family in the town where he was born, he crosses paths with Louis Legros, son of another inventor, in a meeting which will change their lives.

Guibord is an independent Member of Parliament who represents Prescott-Makadewà-Rapides-aux Outardes, a vast county in Northern Quebec. As the entire country watches, Guibord unwillingly finds himself in the awkward position of holding the decisive vote to determine whether Canada will go to war. Accompanied by his wife, his daughter and an idealistic intern from Haiti named Sovereign, Guibord travels across his district in order to consult his constituents. While groups of lobbyists get involved in a debate that spins out of control, the MP will have to face his own conscience. 'My Internship in Canada' is a biting political satire in which politicians, citizens and lobbyists go head-to-head tearing democracy to shreds. Film starring Suzanne Clément, Patrick Huard and Mardy Men

A drama inspired by the life of heavyweight boxer Chuck Wepner.

When Elisabeth, a woman of faith, host of a radio show on a Catholic radio station, devoted to her family and the suffering of the world, is confronted with the pedophilia of priests and the suicide of her son, belief gives way to rage and to violence.

On September 11, 2004, filmmaker Robert Morin shot Que Dieu bénisse l'Amérique, set on September 11, 2001. For artistic reasons, he decided to shoot the feature in a single day. Philippe Falardeau witnessed this tumultuous day, which ended tragically. At the same time, filmmaker Louis Bélanger criticizes Robert Morin's working methods.

Joined by contributors, and with a different guest each week, Marie-Louise Arsenault hosts this magazine that highlights the week’s top stories, casting a critical eye on the national and international media and the images that surround us in journalism, advertising and social networks.