Les Films de L'Autre

Guillaume, 24, a passionate and idealistic young man, struggles to find his place, both romantically and professionally. Between his older sister Charlotte, who supports him financially because she believes in his talent, his overwhelmed parents, and his fervently Catholic younger sister, he refuses to compromise his ideals. Charlotte invites her brother to spend a few days with her fiancé Antoine's father, who lives in a beautiful little village in the Bas-Saint-Laurent region. The two families meet there. The visitors will have a series of experiences that are amusing, tense, and transformative.

In his small apartment, a middle-aged man has reached the end of his tether. He has become indifferent, even to his only true passion, classical music. He decides to end it all. But his plans are thwarted by the jarring sounds from his new neighbor above, a novice celloist. They end up trading selected musical pieces in a ruthless duell...

In a Guadeloupean village, a young boy adopts a stray dog. Devastated by his new companion’s sudden disappearance, he sets out on a quest through this unknown island.

The documentary proposes a unique meeting with the speakers of several indigenous and inuit languages of Quebec – all threatened with extinction. The film starts with the discovery of these unsung tongues through listening to the daily life of those who still speak them today. Buttressed by an exploration and creation of archives, the film allows us to better understand the musicality of these languages and reveals the cultural and human importance of these venerable oral traditions by nourishing a collective reflection on the consequences of their disappearance.

The grim routine of suicides, murders, shootings and mass killings in North America is as much in the streets and schools as it is in the home. The subject of firearms is controversial – and the presence of weapons in the home leaves no one indifferent. For some, guns represent a potential threat; for others, it is a legitimate right. However, if firearms arouse a fascination associated with power, force and strength, then surely the possession of one needs to be questioned. A review of our time and the question of arms, this film talks of a controversial, destabilizing and explosively hot topic.

Today, 11 years after the massive earthquake in Haiti that left over a million people homeless and killed hundreds of thousands, the country has still not recovered from the disaster. Despite billions of dollars in aid money, Haiti struggles with some of the highest levels of poverty and unemployment in the Western hemisphere. In Port-au-Prince, various citizens are shuttled through a city in crisis. Maneuvering around barricades, garbage dumps and the packed streets of the capital, they speak candidly about the current state of their country. Through the car window a frustrated population passes and occasionally interacts with the passengers in the vehicle. Beautifully shot, with a lively score, Zo Reken presents a complicated portrait that testifies to the magnitude of the tragedy and highlights the disorganized state of international aid.

While Montreal is in the throes of a string of kidnappings targeting young boys, ten-year-old Felix is finishing his school year in the seemingly quiet suburb where he lives. A sensitive boy with a vivid imagination, Felix is afraid of everything. Little by little, his imaginary demons begin to mirror those of the truly disturbing world around him.

In a dark, ambiguous environment, minuscule particles drift slowly before the lens. The image focuses to reveal spruce trees and tall pines, while Innu voices tell us the story of this territory, this flooded forest. Muffled percussive sounds gradually become louder, suggesting the presence of a hydroelectric dam. The submerged trees gradually transform into firebrands as whispers bring back the stories of this forest.

In this tale, halfway between reality and fantasy, a mysterious narrator tells us the story of Amani, a young boy passionate about dance. But as the night begins to rumble, Amani’s joie de vivre disappears to give way to his pain.

For more than a century, Azerbaijan and Armenia have been fighting over Nagorno-Karabakh, an autonomous region in Azerbaijan with an ethnic Armenian majority. With an empathetic ear to both sides, this film delicately unpacks the sensitive subject of ethnic nationalism in the South Caucasus. Using poetic visuals and a mesmerizing, immersive soundscape, Under the Same Sun introduces us to the viewpoints of writers, activists and everyday citizens. Through these interviews, the film raises an urgent and timely question: How does one retain a belief in universal human rights in the face of aggressive propaganda and increasing ethnic nationalism?

To fill the absence of his six-year-old daughter living in Berlin, a Montreal filmmaker keeps a film diary which takes him back to his relationship with his adoptive father and his biological father, whom he never knew. His diary also becomes a reflection on cinema by revisiting the work of filmmakers who influenced him such as Ingmar Bergman and Wim Wenders. Diary of a Father is a poetic response to making the separation between a father and his child bearable.

Louise enjoys a private moment to open her treasure box in the room she shares with her little sister. She does not know that she has been hiding under her bed to spy on her. The film deals with sensuality through a both charming and erotic experience of an involuntary interaction between two sisters.

We watch from behind as a person with a sling bag walks through the night, before melting among her peers in a refuge, in Mexico, welcoming those women and men who are fleeing a political situation, an economic impasse enriching organised crime. It is of little matter where these migrants come from, as it is, above all, a matter of staying alive and avoiding the gangs that keep an eye on the long path to exile. However, everyone knows the goal: to get into the north of the continent, the United States or Canada, at all costs, aboard goods trains, which they hang onto dangerously. In complete immersion, Hubert Caron-Guay filmed this last chance voyage in which waiting contends with anguish, even though solidarity is tangible at times, like in the sequence where a man enjoins his companions in misfortune to “run at the same speed as the train”, otherwise, death is certain.

How Montreal is transformed from winter to spring. Inspired by Berlin: Symphony of a great city, Printemps Now! is a cinematographic poem, an audiovisual symphony of the city of Montreal transitioning from winter to spring.

Hoping to reconnect, three brothers embark on a fishing trip with their father, whose absence from their childhood has left them with lasting scars. For Stéphane, Jean-Pierre, Jérôme and Laurent, this is a chance to find some answers, and maybe even to make their peace with the past.

Menacing smoke rises over the forests of Manawan. Shawnouk has lost touch with the traditions of the Atikamekw people, and he struggles with daily life on the reservation. His mother's boyfriend is a policeman, and though he means well, Shawnouk won't accept him as part of the family. There's so much missing in his life. One night, Shawnouk gets involved in a break-in. When the home-owner turns up, Shawnouk pushes himself between the man and the gun. In the end, he is the one with blood on his hands. He goes into hiding in the vast forests of Québec. In the search for his roots, he faces regret, pain and anger. Fire and smoke, the ancient trees, and the music of his ancestors help Shawnouk to face his biggest challenge: the confrontation with himself.

When Vlace is suspended for hitting a classmate, Sasha is called to come get his son at school and has no choice but to take him along on his delivery route. During this intimate journey, we discover what provoked Vlace's uncharacteristic act, as father and son find their way toward a new understanding.

Cranes and Voices follows, on one side, people who hear voices and share their daily lives, and on the other, a collective of tenants who investigate their neighbourhood through its noises, its vibrations and its construction sites. The film moves through apartments, streets, meetings and moments of sound creation, where voices, urban noises and recorded materials are transformed into collective sound compositions and spaces for exchange. Sound appears here as an ambivalent force, at once invasive and generative, shaping the way we inhabit the city, other people and ourselves. Cranes and Voices invites us to pay attention to these singular listening experiences, to hear what they reveal about the housing crisis, about how mental health is viewed and about the ways we organise our shared spaces.

Worlds and genres collide one summer afternoon as a young woman and her horse make a surprising and eventful odyssey in this richly cinematic drama by Montreal's Halima Elkhatab

In a province not so distant from ours, now controlled by a far-right government, the borders are closed and immigrants, now under threat, are desperate to get out. A Haitian woman hands over her young son to a thirty-something Quebec man before fleeing. With help from a Vietnamese former refugee, they try to solve the mystery.