On Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day, we are presenting a fascinating double feature bringing together the complementary portraits of two major figures of Quebec’s cultural and political life, icons of the independence movement: Pauline Julien and Gérald Godin, partners in life as in their cause.
Gérald Godin’s work and life were strongly influenced by his deep-rooted commitment to Quebec. Whether his political and literary contributions to Quebec’s cultural heritage were forgotten or simply unknown, they nevertheless remain incredibly valuable. From his childhood in Trois-Rivières to his life in Montréal, from the 1960s to the 1995 Referendum, including the prisons of the October Crisis and the songs of his long-time partner, Pauline Julien, Godin the film is full of archives and interviews that trace back the unique life of a fighter. A striking portrait of the one we called the deputy-poet. A cinematographic quilt of modern Quebec, woven using an exceptional array of archives.
Simon Beaulieu
A filmmaker and screenwriter, Simon Beaulieu has written and directed three feature-length documentaries exploring the issues of the artist’s engagement with society and the survival of Quebec culture: Lemoyne about the painter Serge Lemoyne in 2005, Godin about the writer and politician in 2011, as well as Miron: A Man Returned from Beyond the World in 2014, an exploratory documentary about Quebec poet Gaston Miron that screened at many international festivals. In 2019, he co-wrote the screenplay and dialogue for Maxime Giroux's The Great Darkened Days (La grande noirceur). That same year, he directed a fourth feature film, White Noise (Le fond de l'air), in which he explores the form of experimental essay to address the Anthropocene and the environmental crisis.
Photo: Frédérick Pelletier
