Le son des Français d'Amérique (English Version)

Francophone culture in North America is largely rooted in music, songs and folk dances passed on from generation to generation. And there is a connection between the vibrancy of these traditions and their minority status, since French-speaking communities have been able to preserve their identities and fend off assimilation in part by holding on to their folk traditions. The development of francophone communities in the New World is better traced through their music—so intimately linked to daily life, work and events—than through history books. The films in this series pursue a goal, shared by many Quebec filmmakers, to shine a spotlight on a people whose voice and right to “memory” had been stripped away. In offering those who did not generally have access to public forums a place to speak, direct cinema developed an original discourse that ran counter to official statements from politicians, historians and academics—in short, those who tended to monopolize the usual channels of communication. In this sense, this series does not seek to perpetuate the myth of a French North America that disappeared in the mid-18th century, a myth maintained by US, English-Canadian and French historians. Rather, through sound and music, it depicts the ongoing presence of four French Peoples in North America: Quebecers, Acadians, Métis and Créoles. The originality of the North American French “sound” draws upon both French and Celtic influences. To better understand its roots, five of the films were shot in Vendée, Poitou; in Upper and Lower Brittany; and in Ireland. The 27 films in the series have clear archival value, but they also bear witness to a North America that would not be the same without its francophone influence. The filmmakers, André Gladu and Michel Brault, wanted to use francophone musical traditions to demonstrate how francophones contributed to building the North America we know today.