TORONTO, October 21, 2005 -- Thirty-five years after The October Crisis, York University will mark the anniversary with a screening of Michel Brault’s powerful film about the period, Les Ordres, and a panel discussion featuring the filmmaker.
The Department of Film at York is presenting Brault – a cinematographer, director and a founding voice of modern Quebec cinema – in an afternoon panel discussion on Thursday, October 27, followed by a screening of his 1974 film in the evening. It is part of the Film Department’s ongoing Independents series and is co-sponsored by the Robarts Centre for Canadian Studies.
Brault’s film, which regularly appears on lists of the ten best Canadian films, blends fiction and documentary realism in a chilling portrait of what can happen to a liberal democracy when the state imposes its power. It tells the story of ordinary Montrealers who wake up to find that the War Measures Act – martial law – has been imposed on their city. They are rounded up and thrown into jail without being charged or given access to legal counsel and face mental and physical torture.
“That all this really happened in Canada, and by order of none other than Pierre Elliott Trudeau, makes the film that much more chilling,” said film professor Seth Feldman, director of the Robarts Centre. “Film has always been a very important part of the political and cultural dialogue in modern Quebec, so it’s only apt that one of the most important events in 20th Century Quebec be depicted in one of its greatest films.”
Michel Brault’s career began in 1956 at the National Film Board where he was one of the originators of the documentary style that later became known as cinéma vérité. He directed his first feature, Entre la mer et l’eau douce, in 1967 and his second feature, Les Ordres, earned him the best direction award at Cannes and four Genie Awards. He is equally well known as the cinematographer on some of the greatest films made in Quebec, including Mon oncle Antoine (1971) and Kamouraska (1973). Brault has received a number of prestigious awards including a Governor General’s award in 1996.
Brault will be joined in a panel discussion “The October Crisis: thirty-five years later” by York professors Marcel Martel, of the Department of History, and Gillian Helfield, of the Department of Film. It takes place Thursday, October 27 at 2:30 p.m. in Room 004 of the Accolade West building, at York’s Keele campus.
Les Ordres will be shown at 7 p.m. in the Nat Taylor Cinema (Ross building 102N) at the Keele campus. University of Toronto Professor David Clanfield, a scholar of Quebec film, will introduce Brault and a question-and-answer period will follow the screening. The screening and panel discussions are both open to the public at no charge.
York University is the leading interdisciplinary research and teaching university in Canada. York offers a modern, academic experience at the undergraduate and graduate level in Toronto, Canada’s most international city. The third largest university in the country, York is host to a dynamic academic community of 50,000 students and 7,000 faculty and staff, as well as 180,000 alumni worldwide. York’s 10 faculties and 21 research centres conduct ambitious, groundbreaking research that is interdisciplinary, cutting across traditional academic boundaries. This distinctive and collaborative approach is preparing students for the future and bringing fresh insights and solutions to real-world challenges. York University is an autonomous, not-for-profit corporation.
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For more information, contact:
Marcia Orlowsky, Department of Film, 416-736-5149, orlowsky@yorku.ca
or
Janice Walls, Media Relations Coordinator, York University, 416-736-2100 x22101/ wallsj@yorku.ca
