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Integration of Immigrants in Quebec (11)
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3. Intergenerational ConflictsJean-Martin Gagnon & Nicolas Wadimoff 2023 26 minDifferent generations come together to discuss major issues, revealing wildly divergent points of view. How can we live together while respecting each other’s differences? -
6. Daring to Risk FailureJean-Martin Gagnon 2023 30 minStudents take stock of their turbulent time at Maisonneuve. They reveal how the remarkable and striking events of the last two years—and the reflections they brought on—have influenced their own journeys.
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The Downtown ProjectIsabelle Longtin 2011 52 minJust a stone’s throw from downtown Montreal is the largest social housing complex in Quebec. Built in 1959 where the red-light district used to be, Les Habitations Jeanne-Mance have retained something of the area’s seedy reputation for poverty, prostitution, drugs and violence. But who really knows the projects and the people who live there? Delving beneath the prejudices and stereotypes, director Isabelle Longtin ventured inside the buildings and met the residents. The result is The Downtown Project, a documentary that reveals a complex multi-ethnic reality made up of compelling personal stories and social movements.
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Far from BasharPascal Sanchez 2020 1 h 13 minSeveral years ago, after taking part in the mass uprisings against Bashar al-Assad, Adnan al-Mahamid had to flee Syria with his wife, Basmah, and their four children. Now settled in Montreal, the family opens their door to filmmaker Pascal Sanchez. They’ve adjusted to life in a peaceful city, but Adnan and Basmah still fear for loved ones back in Syria whose status and whereabouts remain unknown. The war that’s thousands of kilometres away continues to haunt them, surging suddenly to the fore in a conversation, Skype call or Facebook feed. Far from Bashar chronicles an endearing family as they go about their lives, tormented by a distant and seemingly interminable conflict.
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Haïti (Québec) (English Version)Tahani Rached 1985 59 minHaitians make up the largest black community in Quebec: there are over 40,000 of them, the vast majority of them living on the island of Montreal, where they are often the target of prejudice, hostility and contempt. Is this how we welcome them?
This documentary film is not an indictment, let alone a trial. However, it does want to catalyze our attention, by having us witness a cruel and dramatic reality: the Haitian community of Montreal, these people from another culture who came here bringing with them their hopes as sorrows, suffers the pain of our rejection.
If they left their homeland, it was to flee repression, poverty, and try to find –among us– a better life. Have they found it? Maybe they got a job here and the right to speak and act freely. But are they any better understood, loved and respected? -
Mediterraneo Sempre - Mediterranean ForeverNicola Zavaglia 2000 1 h 12 minThis feature documentary explores the roots and communities of the Italian immigrants who have made Montreal their home across the 20th century. Starting from a village in Calabria, the filmmaker recounts the saga of Italian immigrants and presents a chapter from the history of his own community. Wherever the tides of immigration carried them, the exiled descendants of Leonardo and Michelangelo have re-created a Mediterranean of the heart, to which they turn to reconnect with their roots.
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One Sunday in CanadaGilles Carle 1961 27 minOne Sunday in Canada visits an Italian community in the northwest sector of Montreal, where about half of the city's 150,000 Italians live. In the new suburbs where they are settling, the streets may have names like Venice, Naples, Genoa; and wherever men and women gather, there is the ebullience characteristic of the Latin. This is a Sunday on which special observances are held at the Italian church of Madonna della Difesa, and it is also the Sunday when Montreal's Cantalia soccer team challenges Toronto's Italia. A very human story of people adapting to life in a new environment.
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Our Street Was Paved with GoldAlbert Kish 1973 28 minFilmmaker Albert Kish revisits Montreal's St Lawrence Boulevard in the '70s. The street, also known as "The Main," is a little Europe with many languages, foods and small courtesies that make a stranger feel at home.
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RuptureNajwa Tlili 1998 45 minThey believed they were creating a household and living a new life, but they were humiliated and tormented. What Fadhila and Roula have in common is that they're women, Arab, immigrants and have been sexually assaulted by their husbands. In order to break down the walls of silence, they have bravely chosen to tell their stories. Their accounts are complemented by discussions in Montreal with women's social workers, members of the Arab community and a lawyer specializing in Canadian immigration. To the sound of the melodies beautifully sung by the diva Aïcha Redouane, the film considers the question of unfamiliar cultural values and women's rights in the current social context. In French with English subtitles.
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A Sleeping Tree Dreams of Its RootsMichka Saäl 1992 1 h 21 minA bold and eclectic cinematic style defines the work of filmmaker Michka Saäl and her friend, writer Nadine Ltaif as they journey from childhoods in the Middle East to their chosen home of Montréal. Saäl is Jewish, Ltaif is Arab. Together they overcome the divisive prejudices of their upbringing and embark on an engaging search for clarity, familiarity and historical significance among the immigrant communities of Montréal. Saäl uses super-8 home movies, old photographs, dramatizations and casual conversations to cross personal and political boundaries, giving voice to the varied ancestries of us all. In French with English subtitles.
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Steel BluesJorge Fajardo 1976 34 minPablo, Chilean emigrant, ex-professor, seeks work in a Montréal steel mill. Cut off from family, country and profession, he is baffled by a language he doesn't speak and a job he doesn't know. The film reproduces with accuracy and sensitivity his efforts to adjust to a new and bewildering world.
