In the summer of 1969, a portion of Quebec's youth — quite numerous at the time — converged on Percé, in Gaspésie. The Maison du pêcheur would become the main gathering place for these young people until the municipality used force to drive them out of town. A near-forgotten document, a film buried by the filmmaker's mother in her garden in 1970¹, Pitié pour les étranges shows rare footage of the crowd that not only came to have a good time in the region that summer, but also sharpened its social and political awareness.

In the must-see film Les Rose (Félix Rose, 2020), footage from Daniel Payette's short film was used to accompany the protagonists’ Gaspé episode. It bridged the 1968 Saint-Jean riot and the Rose brothers’ involvement with the FLQ, future members of the Chénier cell (along with Francis Simard and Bernard Lortie, both of whom they met in Percé) that would kidnap Minister Pierre Laporte in October 1970. Payette's documentary mostly features Paul Rose, but also his brother Jacques and a young Plume Latraverse, heavily bearded, guitar in hand.

Considered a “piece of evidence” by its creators, Pitié pour les étranges paints a portrait of a politicized, free, and thriving youth before it would face the federal government's War Measures and the cold confines of October’s prisons.

Jean-Philippe Desrochers
Critic


1. Garel, Sylvain, Le FLQ dans la cinématographie québécoise, Éditions Somme toute, Montreal, 2023, p. 74.