Belle famille
This recurring cycle showcases works from Quebec’s audiovisual heritage, digitized and restored by the Cinémathèque Québécoise, thanks largely to the support of the Ministère de la Culture et des Communications du Québec as part of its Digital Cultural Plan. Since 2018, the project has enabled the Cinémathèque to restore around 50 films, with a focus on independent cinema.
Belle famille is a documentary that follows the life of a Montreal garbage collector and his family between 1970 and 1976. Gérard Duffault, a colorful and articulate character, leaves his very modest home in Saint-Henri, Montreal, with his wife and children to build a house in Ormstown with salvaged materials.
Serge Giguère
Resolutely humanist, Serge Giguère’s cinema offers intimate journeys where reality and imagination intertwine to open up the secret dimension that connects us to one another. He was the recipient of the Governor General’s Award (2008) and the Albert-Tessier Award (2021). Starting as an assistant cameraman for master documentarians Pierre Perrault and Arthur Lamothe, he then founded Les films d’aventures sociales du Québec in 1974 with Robert Tremblay and they co-directed three films together, including Belle famille (1978). Giguère then joined forces with Sylvie Van Brabant to create Les Productions du Rapide-Blanc in 1984, where he directed most of his films, including Oscar Thiffault, The King of Drums and My Mother’s Letters. Driven By Dreams (2007) (Special Jury Award Best Canadian Documentary, Hot Docs 2007) along with Finding MacPherson (2015) both earned a Jutra Award for Best Quebec Documentary. Serge Giguère is one of Quebec’s most important documentary filmmakers of the last few decades.
Robert Tremblay
Robert Tremblay is a Quebec screenwriter and documentarian. In collaboration with Serge Giguère, he founded Les films d'aventure sociale du Québec in 1974 and co-directed four medium-length and feature film with him: Toul Québec au monde sua jobbe (1978), Toute ma vie au service des riches (1978), Belle famille (1978), and Pow Pow té mort ou ben j'joue pu (1979).
Photo: Claude de Maisonneuve
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This restoration is part of the implementation of a measure in Quebec's Digital Cultural Plan.
