QUEBEC: MY COUNTRY, MON PAYS (John Walker). 89 minutes. Some subtitles. Opens Friday (November 25). See listing. Rating: NNNN
John Walker looks at the history of Quebec’s distinct society in a quietly personal documentary getting a commercial run after premiering at the Hot Docs film festival this past spring.
An anglophone born and raised in Montreal, Walker has a specific perspective on the traditions, Catholic and otherwise, that shaped la belle province’s sense of itself as a perpetually beleaguered minority state.
With context and commentary from fellow directors Denys Arcand and Jacques Godbout, screenwriter Louise Pelletier and critic Paul Warren – speaking in French and English – Walker finds a province (and a nation) struggling to transcend its deeply conservative wiring to build a better future.
I hope we get there.
