Ougmigmag or The Fickle Art of Documentary Filmmaking

This documentary is about the Montagnais from Saint-Augustin et de La Romaine Indian reserve, in the region of the Côte-Nord in Quebec. Perrault approach those First Nations Citizens in order to discover that even if in our traditional occidental thinking and culture we consider ourselves superior to them, we still have a lot to learn from their traditions and ancestral way of living. Through a warm, human and respectful gaze, Perrault looks at the repercussions of European civilization's influence on Aboriginal culture, exploring the imagination and the codes of Native from Canada. The result, contradictory yet profound, was especially striking thanks to the sublime images captured by Gosselin within close relations with the Cinéma-Direct tradition in witch Perraut is one if not the greatest ambassador in the world.

Did Cartier dream of making a country from this land of a million birds? In his records of his exploration he certainly marvelled at seeing the great auks that have since disappeared from Isle aux Ouaiseaulx, the razor-bills and gannets that are gone from Blanc-Sablon, and the kittiwakes from Anticosti, all the winged creatures of all the islands which he described as being "as full of birds as a meadow is of grass". And that's not even counting the countless snow geese.

The people of Unamenshipu (La Romaine), an Innu community in the Côte-Nord region of Quebec, are seen but not heard in this richly detailed documentary about the rituals surrounding an Innu caribou hunt. Released in 1960, it’s one of 13 titles in Au Pays de Neufve-France, a series of poetic documentary shorts about life along the St. Lawrence River. Off-camera narration, written by Pierre Perrault, frames the Innu participants through an ethnographic lens. Co-directed by René Bonnière and Perrault, a founding figure of Quebec’s direct cinema movement.

Not far from the North Pole on Ellesmere Island, for one hundred and twenty days, a watchful camera stalks a beast of fleece and hoof, the ancient musk-ox, in anticipation of the great bull's duel for dominance. By the light of late summer, in the hush of expectation of mating behaviour, battle is joined between the furry combatants.

At the instigation of the filmmakers, the young men of the Ile-aux-Coudres in the middle of the St-Lawrence River try as a memorial to their ancestors to revive the fishing of the belugas interrupted in 1924.

In the late 1960s, with the triumph of bilingualism and biculturalism, New Brunswick's Université de Moncton became the setting for the awakening of Acadian nationalism after centuries of defeatism and resignation. Although 40% of the province's population spoke French, they had been unable to make their voices heard. The movement started with students-sit-ins, demonstrations against Parliament, run-ins with the police - and soon spread to a majority of Acadians. The film captures the behind-the-scenes action and the students' determination to bring about change. An invaluable document of the rebirth of a people.

An incident from the early days of Québec's quiet revolution, tailor-made for the cartoonist. It is the story of a Montréal commuter train, a unilingual ticket collector and a bilingual passenger. The passenger appears on screen himself to describe his bid to have tickets requested in French as well as in English. What ensued, and how even the railway president became involved, is illustrated with wit and humor.

Pierre Perrault takes Stéphane-Albert Boulais (from 'The Bright Beast', one of his films) to discover Saint-Malo and Jacques Cartier, in preparation for the 450th anniversary of the discovery of Canada (1534-1984). City tour with guide. Examination of Cartier's "Relations" and testimonies from the life of Falklands sailors, in an attempt to reconstruct his journey, his life, his time. Dialogue across the Atlantic between Saint-Malo and Île-aux-Coudres, the discoverer's mooring place. Who was Cartier? Who does it belong to? The discussion is open.