Finding Macpherson

Le mystère Macpherson, c'est d'abord une histoire d'amitié improbable entre le grand Félix Leclerc et l'intrigant Frank Randolph Macpherson, ingénieur-chimiste jamaïcain arrivé au Québec en 1917, qui inspira la chanson « MacPherson » au poète. C'est ensuite une histoire de mémoire, celle de cette chanson justement, qui poussa la cinéaste d'animation Martine Chartrand à réaliser l'impressionnant film MacPherson, à partir de peintures sur verre animées sous la caméra 35mm. Un film développé sur dix ans alors qu'elle entreprenait de vastes recherches sur ce personnage, tout en revisitant aussi sa propre histoire. Le mystère Macpherson, un voyage historique et intime, que nous raconte Serge Giguère, complice des premières heures de la démarche de Martine Chartrand. Regard généreux sur une artiste au travail, Le mystère Macpherson est une œuvre résolument humaniste, où sont mis à jour les liens imperceptibles mais indestructibles qui nous unissent les uns aux autres.

In the past 30 years and with the rise of the Internet, the sex trade has expanded worldwide and become a true industry. But who is benefiting from this phenomenon, which has turned the bodies of women into a commodity to be exploited? The Sex Trade is a foray into a brutal world whose key players trivialize the impact of their actions by claiming that prostitution is simply a service like any other. Part investigative report and part editorial, this documentary delves into an industry that often operates legally. High-end and street prostitution, escort agencies, massage parlours, strip clubs, the porn industry, sex tourism-the sex trade is sprawling, and has even spread beyond major urban areas. An ensemble film, The Sex Trade journeys into a murky underground. Behind the glowing signs of clubs and bars and on various websites, men are paying for sex and buying the consent of the women. To meet customer demands and keep this lucrative business rolling, unscrupulous pimps and sex traffickers target women and girls, who are afraid to speak out. With incisive comments from experts and enlightening interviews with people who have left or are still in the sex trade, the film takes a behind-the-scenes look at this industry to reveal a modern form of slavery. The Sex Trade is a journey into darkness from which no one can emerge unscathed.

In this documentary, crop and animal farmers in Quebec, the Canadian West, the US Northeast and France offer solutions to the social and environmental scourges of factory farming. Driven by the forces of globalization, rampant agribusiness is harming the environmemt and threatening the survival of farms. The proliferation of GMO crops is a further threat to biodiversity as well as to farmers' autonomy. In Europe as well as North America, a current of resistance bringing together farmers and consumers insists that it is possible--indeed imperative--to grow food differently. The Fight for True Farming is a film of grim lucidity but also irrepressible hope.