Marc-André Bélanger

This historical drama with music examines the life and times of Émile Nelligan, one of the major Canadian poets of the 19th century who struggled through a difficult childhood with the help of his loving mother, only to see his career cut short by tragic circumstances.

This animated short by Claude Cloutier is a pictorial account of an attack on Canadian soldiers during WWI. On the edge of the battlefield, recruits are dreading the order to attack. At the signal, a young soldier leaps into a hell of fire and blood where the earth engulfs both the living and the dead. Blending archival images and Cloutier’s hypnotizing brushstroke, the film is a dazzling illustration of the futility of war.

A philandering wife and a sleazy womanizing con-man team up to off a troublesome father-in-law in this acid-tinged French Canadian black comedy. Leon, the con-artist makes his living cheating Catholic bingo players by hosting bogus religious pilgrimages. He is involved with a woman, but that doesn't stop him from getting involved with the frustrated Sophie who hates living in a tiny apartment with her lazy husband, her ever-gloomy teenage daughter and her husband's demanding, self-centered father, Emile. Sophie is so desperate to escape and start a new life that she convinces Leon to help her kill Emile who allegedly has $150,000 tucked away. The murder is to occur during one of Leon's pilgrimages. He convinces his son Paolo, an ex-con, to assist. Despite their careful planning, nothing prepares the would-be killers for the surprising result.