Charles Gagnon

Documentary about Charles Gagnon, Québécois politician, FLQ member and communist leader.

This feature documentary tells the stories of 5 asylum seekers who flee their native countries to escape homophobic violence. They face hurdles integrating into Canada, fear deportation and anxiously await a decision that will change their lives forever.

16mm, b/w, silent

Pierre Mercure 1927-1966 is composed of a three-minute montage filmed by Gagnon at Mercure's funeral and burial, which is looped 11 times and processed using colour filters and optical printing techniques that reverse and double the image.

"The film systematically shows man destroying man. It is about war and inhumanity. Largely assembled from newsclips and elaborate montage of still photographs. While working on the film, I came to realize that the strongest thing about violence and the most abstract thing about violence is its sequential nature, that war has never stopped, and that it is just the leading of one conflict into another conflict. I could keep this film going forever...." —Charles Gagnon