This film marked the beginning of my career as a filmmaker and documentary director of photography—I knew it by heart. The signature of a real documentary director of photography is not simply in looking, but being able to listen, to clearly demonstrate that they possess a delicate and respectful team spirit. Learning to respect silences; learning that documentary cinema is an art that is collective in nature. Speaking of—this film had an incredible team: Benoit Pilon in the director’s chair, Michel La Veaux as director of photography, René Roberge editing, and Luc Boudrias on sound. But before all of that, there was a touching and generous subject, Roger Toupin, who, surrounded by his mother and neighbourhood friends, tells his story with disarming authenticity. His cast of characters was so rich that one of them would go on to become the subject of Pilon’s next film, Nestor et les oubliés. This film has everything: Quebec history, family and family values, but also tragedy. The tragedy of our seniors in long-term care homes, the tragedy of Duplessis orphans and the tragedy of entire neighbourhoods swallowed whole by gentrification and lost forever. Thankfully, Pilon kept a record of these times that I now so dearly miss.

Christian Mathieu Fournier
Filmmaker