Congress Activities

Congress activities will center on one of the three cross-cutting questions.

CinEE - A window to the world

Schedule and Synopsis

Monday, May 11, 1:30 p.m. - 3:30 p.m.

Views on genetic engineering

(Part 1)

Le monde selon Monsanto

(The World According to Monsanto)

Documentary screening

Facilitator: Jean-Philippe Vermette

Presenter: Marie-Monique Robin, producer

 

Monday, May 11, 3:30 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.

Views on genetic engineering

(Part 2)

Le monde selon Monsanto

(The World According to Monsanto)

Panel discussion

Facilitator: Jean-Philippe Vermette

Panelists:

Marie-Monique Robin, producer

Éric Darier, Greenpeace

Louise Vandelac, UQAM

Synopsis: Le monde selon Monsanto retraces the history of this St. Louis, Missouri, company by drawing on unpublished documents and firsthand accounts from scientists, civil society representatives, victims of the company’s toxic activites, lawyers, politicans and American Food and Drug Administration and Environmental Protection Agency officials. Based on three years of research in North America, South America, Europe and Asia, this film shines the spotlight on this industrial giant’s evolution—a path marred by misleading reports, collusion with the U.S. administration, pressure tactics and attempts at corruption—to become one of the world’s leaders in genetically-modified organisms. It shows how, behind the clean, green image portrayed in Monsanto’s advertising propaganda, there lurks a larger plan to corner the world seed market to the detriment of food safety and the global environment. 

2008, original French version with Spanish or English subtitles – 109 min. 

Tuesday, May 12, 8:30 a.m. - 10:00 a.m.

Views on biodiversity

Facilitator: Marie-Ève Grignon

À fleur de peau

Sarah Charland-Faucher, producer

Synopsis: Behind the dire statistics, Colombia possesses one of the world’s richest flower biodiversities and a population that is equally diverse, with 50,000 flower species that are as little-known as the neighbourhoods of this country, the work its people do, their resistance, struggles, dreams and aspirations. Greenhouse workers, roving sellers, merchants peddling their wares outside cemeteries, social workers, unionists, peasants, artists and street children all come together in this moving documentary that introduces us to the flower industry and to the day-to-day struggles of this country’s inhabitants, creating a colourful bouquet of testimonials budding with life!

2008, original French version with Spanish or English subtitles – 18 min. 

Aboriginal perspectives
Facilitator: Marie-Ève Grignon
Wapikoni mobile
Manon Barbeau, producer

Tuesday, May 12, 10:30 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.

Issues in environmental health

Facilitator: Marie-Ève Grignon

Homo Toxicus

Carole Poliquin, producer

Synopsis: A global experiment is under way and we are the guinea pigs. Every day, tonnes of toxic substances are being released into the environment without any idea of what the long-term effects may be on living creatures. Many of these are infiltrating our bodies, and those of our children, without our awareness. Today, along with our genetic legacy, we are also passing down our toxic legacy to our children. In this pathbreaking investigation, rigourously and humourously conducted using her own blood analyses, the producer explores the relationship between these substances and escalating health problems like cancer, infertility and hyperactivity—with troubling results…

2007- Original French version, 52 min. 

Tuesday, May 12, 1:30 p.m. - 3:00 p.m.

Homage to Quebec (Part 1)

Tribute to the new guard

Facilitator: Marie-Ève Grignon

School and community

Claude Poudrier, educator

Fernand Dansereau, producer

Environmental documentary at the Festival du film de Portneuf sur l’environnement
Léo Denis Carpentier, Festival President
Frédéric Back, La nature avant tout
Phil Comeau, producer, 2009 laureate, Festival du film de Portneuf sur l’environnement

2008 – Originale French Version – 26 min.

Tuesday, May 12, 3:30 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.

Homage to Quebec (Part 2)

Tribute to the pioneers

Facilitator: Jean-Philippe Vermette

Tribute to Frédéric Back

Narrated excerpts from his filmography, including The Man Who Planted Trees.

Suzelle Back

Synopsis: The Oscar® he won for Crac! allowed Frédéric Back to fulfil his dream of bringing Jean Giono’s wonderful story of The Man Who Planted Trees to the screen. In more distilled form, its environmental message and philosophy of life reflect the concerns already addressed by Back in his earlier films. The seeds that the shepherd plants symbolize all of our actions, both good and bad, which have far-reaching consequences that we can scarcely imagine. It is up to us to think and act in accordance with our hopes for the future and, if possible, to leave behind us a world more beautiful and promising than the one we inherited. 

1987 – Original French version – 30 min.

Tribute to Pierre Dansereau

Narrated excerpts from An Ecology of Hope

Normand Brunet, réalisateur

Synopsis: While the environment may be threatened by man, it will also be saved by man. So believes Pierre Dansereau, ecologist, visionary and inveterate optimist. Brimming with an amazing vitality at age 90, the internationally-renowned scientist has a wide-ranging knowledge and a passionate commitment to humanity. In retracing the highlights of his long and fruitful life, the film takes us from Baffin Island to New York City, from the Gaspé Peninsula to Brazil. At each stop on this mini world tour, we witness landscapes of breathtaking beauty. Pierre Dansereau sees all things as interrelated and the harmony of the whole essential to our very survival, a goal toward which he continues to strive, with all of the patience and modesty that characterize the world’s great men.

2001 – Original French version - 84 min.

Wednesday, May 13, 8:30 a.m. - 10:00 a.m.
Views on the petroleum industry
Facilitator: Jean-Philippe Vermette
Black wave : L’héritage de l’Exxon Valdez
Robert Cornellier, producer

Wednesday, May 13, 10:30 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.

Views on the mining industry

Facilitator: Marie-Ève Gagnon

Mirage d’un Eldorado

(Mirage of Eldorado)

Martin Frigon, producer 

Synopsis: Mirage of Eldorado leads us into the mountains of northern Chile, where the devastating operations of Canadian mining companies threaten the fragile ecosystem in one of the driest parts of the globe.

Our political cowboy flick follows the pitched battle between a farming community in the Huasco Valley and Canada’s mining giant Barrick Gold, with its sidekick Noranda (now part of the Swiss corporation Xstrar). It’s a battle fought high in the Cordilleran Andes, where local farmers and local representatives fear the ravages of open pit mining operations in a place where the fragile system of glaciers feeds the rivers that flow into the farmlands built out of the advancing Atacama Desert.

The camera reveals a Chilean government impotent in the face of unprecedented, potentially-devastating mining projects. The firm exposes the hypocrisy of the Canadian government towards its own mining companies which corrupt foreign governments and weaken the environmental assessment process. The permissive legislation enjoyed by the Canadian transnationals was imposed under the Pinochet dictatorship and carried over by successive transition governments, bowing to the dictates of neoliberal economics. 

With a backdrop of breathtaking images and eloquent testimonials, Mirage of El Dorado defies the powers that have us believe their divine mission is to extract wealth no matter where it lies, purportedly to save local communities from endemic poverty!

2008- Original French version with Spanish or English subtitles - 75 min.