Directing
In Belle-Baie, a coastal small town in Acadia, New Brunswick, Canada, villagers want to protect their hometown and preserve the municipal services and programs offered there. We follow their everyday life.
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The coming-of-age story of celebrated novelist Gabrielle Roy, growing up in the family home on Deschambault Street in Saint-Boniface. Against a backdrop of the social and political issues the francophone minority in Manitoba faced at the time, Gabrielle, struggles to understand her place in the scheme of things surrounded by her parents, her sisters, and her community.
From the 1950s to the 1980s, Catholic priests sexually abused many young boys in the francophone towns of New Brunswick. These scandals only came to light when the victims were in their fifties, provoking shock and outrage in the media and the public. Why did the affected communities keep silent so long? Profiting from their positions of influence to impose a “pious silence” on their parishioners, authority figures built an abusive system that tells us as much about the type of oppression specific to the Acadian population as it does about the blanket denials issued by the Catholic Church. Called to confront the power of this collective silence, veteran filmmaker Renée Blanchar meets with survivors in an attempt to untangle the deeply rooted reasons for this secrecy. With The Silence, she takes us as close as she can to the humanity of these broken men, revealing the forces that, today as in the past, have the power to unite or divide Acadian communities.
A different perspective on the exile and social impact of major projects such as oil sands mining in Alberta, Canada. These large-scale projects, based on economic growth, also have human costs that change the cultural face of the regions on a small or large scale. Over a six-month period, three families from the Acadian Peninsula in New Brunswick opened their doors and hearts to director Renée Blanchar and her team. A film about exile, choice of life, values, but especially absence; absence being probably the highest price to pay for each member of these families.
From the 1950s to the 1980s, Catholic priests committed numerous sexual abuses on young boys in several French-speaking villages in New Brunswick. Brought to light when the victims were in their fifties, these scandals sparked shock and indignation in the media and the public. Why have affected communities chosen secrecy over justice and truth for so long? Taking advantage of their influence to impose a "pious silence" on their parishioners, several figures of authority have built a veritable structure of abuse that testifies as much to the oppressions specific to the Acadian populations as to the systemic denial of the Catholic Church. Challenged by the power of collective silence, seasoned filmmaker Renée Blanchar seeks to unravel the root causes by going out to meet the survivors.
