Réjeanne Padovani (1973)

Behind the scenes, Réjeanne Padovani, sometime between October 26 and November 28, 1972. Denys Arcand in full effect.

Part of the inspiration came from a recently completed documentary about Quebec politics and the lingering shadow of Maurice Duplessis. Arcand put it this way: “When I made Québec:  Duplessis and After… [1972]… I witnessed a close connection between politics and organised crime.  I would have liked to have shown this connection in the documentary but… it is impossible to convince politicians and their acolytes to disclose anything in front of the camera…. That is the reason I made Réjeanne Padovani:  in order to talk about that world.  Of course, I transposed the situation, I gave it a dramatic form—even respecting the three neo-classical unities—but the whole thing comes from my experience as a political documentarist.”

You can watch Québec: Duplessis et après… in its original French version here.

And you can find Réjeanne Padovani here.

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Griffintown (1972)

Keywords: COLD!; godforsaken.

Griffintown is Part 2 of Michel Régnier’s monumental Urbanose series from 1972, examining the state of the modern city in the early 1970s, and its possible futures, with a particular focus on Montreal.

Despite its proximity to Downtown, Griffintown was an abandoned district at the time—abandoned by the city, abandoned by the greater population of Montreal, as the architect Joseph Baker puts it in the film—consisting primarily of dilapidated housing, empty lots, and small industry.

Its bleak conditions were all the more bleaker when Régnier shot the outdoor interviews for his film, on a bitterly cold winter day, not unlike today.

If Régnier found a glimmer of hope in the districts citizen’s committee and the architects and grad students who had dedicated themselves to lobbying for consultative urban renewal and quality affordable housing, he also found it in the spirit and the antics of its grade school children.

Baker, one of the film’s featured architects, died in 2016. His work in Griffintown was part of an illustrious career dedicated to community-centred architecture in Montreal and beyond.

You can watch the film in its original French version here.

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