Film

After the Montreal Massacre
National Film Board of Canada

Canadian Broadcasting Corporation

1990

Director: Gerry Rogers

Producer: Nicole Hubert

Reviews:

“After the Montreal Massacre is a useful tool for helping us come to terms with these murders and how they relate to the larger picture of male violence against women. The haunting images taken on the day of the massacre and in the days following, set the stage for an exploration of the urgent issues of misogyny, male violence and sexism.”

Citation: "After the Montreal Massacre”. School Libraries in Canada  22.3 (2003): 34.

“Centering on the searing words of one woman [Sylvie Gagnon] who survived by playing dead, After the Montreal Massacre forces viewers to confront the implications of this tragic event.  Interviews with other students, as well as journalists and sociologists, point out that there is no safe place for women. ‘Emancipation should not mean death,’ points out one feminist.  The film can serve as a powerful catalyst for facing, discussing, and working to eradicate the everyday violence that threatens and demeans women.”

Citation: Kress, PamelaFox, Bette-Lee. "Video Reviews." Library Journal 118.1 (1993): 183.

Polytechnique

Alliance Vivafilm

2009

Director: Denis Villeneuve

Producer: Don Carmody

Screenplay: Jacques Davidts and Denis Villeneuve

Villeneuve… says he wanted to explore the massacre’s narrative from the point of view of the male students who witnessed Lépine’s terror. “We have talked a lot about how this drama has affected women, as we should have, but men were hurt as well. It had a major impact on them,” the 41-year-old director says. “I wanted to explore and illustrate the humiliation and shame that [those] men lived.”

Citation: Bailey, Patricia. Montreal. “Reliving the tragedy: Director Denis Villeneuve discusses his film about the Montreal Massacre.” CBC News: Arts & Entertainment: March 19, 2009

Awards:

Toronto Film Critics Association, Best Canadian Film, 2009

Genie Awards: Nine awards 2009, including: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actress (Karine Vanesse) Best Supporting Actor (Maxim Gaudette)

Premiere:

Montreal, February 2^nd, 2009

Reviews:

“Nor do Villeneuve and screenwriter Jacques Davidts seek to make a grand statement about what it all means…

Instead they show, with minimal speculation and admirable restraint, the horror of that awful day when the rage of one became the grief of many.

Villeneuve and Davidts offer scant background into the lives of the killer and his victims. There is so little dialogue, Polytechnique almost plays like a silent movie, a feeling intensified by its black-and-white starkness and insistent one-note musical motif.”

Citation: Howell, Peter, Toronto. "Silent WITNESS; using very Little Dialogue, Denis Villeneuve Revisits that Horrible Montreal Day." The Toronto Star, sec. ENTERTAINMENT: E01. March 20 2009