Quebec My Country Mon Pays

John Walker grew up an Anglophone in Montreal in the years surrounding Quebec’s Quiet Revolution. He witnessed first-hand the upheaval that transformed the political and cultural landscape. In those years, more than 500,000 English-speaking Quebecers left the province, many of them—including Walker—finding their way to Toronto. After decades as a cinematographer and documentary filmmaker, Walker decides to turn his lens on his own story and dig into the heart of the social revolution that shaped his identity. His immediate and extended family express their conflicted feelings about their place in modern Quebec. Others, from a police officer who diffused FLQ bombs to director Denys Arcand, contemplate the issues that drive Quebec’s desire for sovereignty. A province’s past is informed by personal reflection and Walker’s perspective that “my grandmothers taught me that history is a path to understanding and myths and half-truths must be challenged.” (Summary by Alexander Rogalski)