Monique Fortier

The history of the roles of women in Quebec society, beginning with the women shipped from France to the New World by the King to populate the colony with the men already there, and ending with the modern career woman.

A two-part in-depth exploration of the evolution of the private film industry, seen through the eyes of more than 50 industry professionals. Part One (1939-1979) : Artists and professionals from the social and commercial film sectors recount the struggle to build a film industry that is privately operated yet publicly funded. Part Two (1980-2010) : Executives, policymakers, and industry professionals trace the origins of the major funding institutions and discuss the unintended consequences of building a cultural industry around performance metrics, revenue generation, and private profit.

Monique Fortier was one of the few women to make her way in the male world of the NFB in the 1950s. But make her way she did. Beginning as a secretary, she graduated to editing and in 1963 she became the first francophone woman to direct her own film, À l'heure de la décolonisation. Her NFB colleague Anne Claire Poirier would make her first film the same year. Fortier subsequently returned to editing, quietly labouring at the Steenbeck, shaping films that helped define Direct Cinema.

"I've often wondered what makes beauty" - So says Monique Miller who personifies in this short documentary universal woman, anxious to please since childhood, vulnerable, according to the hours, to the eyes of others, to torture from the wait, to the obsession of the wrinkles of tomorrow.

"I've often wondered what makes beauty" - So says Monique Miller who personifies in this short documentary universal woman, anxious to please since childhood, vulnerable, according to the hours, to the eyes of others, to torture from the wait, to the obsession of the wrinkles of tomorrow.