In a time when militant unionism believed in the power of cinema, CSN president Michel Chartrand asked Arthur Lamothe to create a short film about alienation and labour, with a budget of $6,000. Lamothe used the budget to create a resolutely avant-garde feature-length film and, for good measure, focused it on the context of Quebec. 

Filmed from March 28 (the day of the massive McGill Français protest) to April 16, 1969, Hell No Longer makes a point of sharing the perspectives of construction workers, who were roundly disdained and spared the right to intervene in the public sphere. In a tavern with all the allure of a sugar shack, they cover a wide range of subjects with cacophonous passion: unemployment, job site safety, indigence (hunger, being unable to pay for their children’s educations), the industrialization of the construction industry, the Vietnam War, francophone segregation, criticisms of the governments’ pharaonic construction projects, capital and capitalism, etc.

Bracketed with horrible images of the Turcot tragedy, set to the Dies irae from Berlioz’ Requiem, the film is, upon study, a play on an interpretation of the « Day of Wrath ». It makes use of a creative format, far from the style widely used by today’s activist cinema: Hell No Longer makes abundant use of media citations (press clippings, ads and televised videos) much as Groulx did in the same era (Entre tu et vous, 24h ou plus). Voiceover narration is replaced by intertitles (some accompanied by Pierre Cornellier’s caustic illustrations) and its editing, absent any cutaways, crossfades or restraints, plays on opposition. 

Richard Brouillette
Filmmaker, producer, chicken farmer, and accountant