1968. France is in the throes of worker and student protests, and a handful of outraged filmmakers disrupts the Cannes Festival. In Quebec, the rise of nationalism leads to clashes during St. Jean Baptiste Day festivities. Against this backdrop, Jean-Luc Godard, on the heels of his hit films À bout de souffle (Breathless, 1959) and Pierrot le fou (1965), is invited to “Les dix jours du cinéma politique” (ten days of political cinema) at Montreal’s Verdi Theatre. But Godard doesn’t make the trip merely to hobnob with admirers. He has another project in mind. In Rouyn-Noranda, a television station has given him carte blanche, and he starts a revolution… This film is part of the Libre Courts collection of first documentary shorts. Seven documentaries, seven filmmakers, a fresh outlook. Daring. Emotional. Cinema.

Mai en décembre: Godard en Abitibi

In 1968, an internationally renowned French film director unexpectedly lands in Abitibi, in the northwest of Quebec, to conduct political and mass-media experiments. This event fuels the revolutionary tendencies of Michel, a local young man, and the desire to travel the world of Marie, his girlfriend.