Of Whales, the Moon and Men, March 9

Lecture by Michel Brault

Following the screening, Michel Brault will deliver a lecture on cinema verité and direct cinema, of which he was an early innovator. (c. 30 mins)

(Pour la suite du monde, a.k.a. For Those Who Will Follow). "All animals talk, all fish talk," declares a philosophical fisherman in this enchanting documentary, and all around him, people talk too. And talk and talk, about whales, future generations, old age, God, and the meaning of the moon. For the film, Michel Brault and Pierre Perrault encouraged the residents of Île-aux-Coudres, an island in the lower St. Lawrence River, to revive a near-forgotten custom: catching beluga whales using wooden staves and the working of the tides. The details of the process are respectfully portrayed, but the film is less about the hunt itself than about "re-establishing links to a vanishing past defined by oral tradition" (Jerry White). Brault's camerawork beautifully captures the seasonal and social rhythms of the island, as well as the otherworldly fascination of the whale itself, and the islanders who are fish out of water escorting the creature to its final destination—New York City.

—Juliet Clark

• Written by Perrault, Brault. Photographed by Brault. (106 mins, In French with English subtitles, B&W, Beta SP, From National Film Board of Canada)

(Total program: c. 135 mins)

Preceded by short:

The Snowshoers (Les raquetteurs) (Michel Brault, Gilles Groulx, Canada, 1958). A humorous but respectful look at the international snowshoe congress held in Quebec. (15 mins, Minimal dialogue in French, B&W, 16mm, From National Film Board of Canada)



• (Total program time: c. 150 mins)