RED SQUARE ON A BLACKBOARD
110 min, Documentary, Quebec, Canada, 2013Directed bySantiago Bertolino & Hugo Samson
Produced byLucie Pageau (Productions Multi-Monde)
LanguageFrench
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Film details
Synopsis
Red square on a blackboard takes us into the heart of the 2012 student crisis to experience from the inside one of the most important social movements in Quebec history. In cinema verité style, the camera stays with the members of the largest student organisation, the CLASSE, as the crisis unfolds. We follow Maxime, Victoria and Justin, as well as the two official spokespersons Gabriel and Jeanne through the dramatic ups and downs of the strike. We have privileged access behind the scenes to experience with them the intense public debate that raged for weeks during the so-called the Maple Leaf Spring (Printemps érable) : executive committee meetings, media strategizing, press conferences, huge student assemblies, debates, votes, street demonstrations, negotiations, demands, as well as the exhaustion, discouragement… and doubts. Red square on a blackboard traces the day-by-day anatomy of the student resistance and its main actors to reveal a militant movement of committed and inspired youth.
Credits
Direction of Photography : Hugo Samson, Santiago Bertolino
Editing : Andrea Henriquez
Sound Design : Bande à part postproduction – Luc Bouchard
Music : René Lussier
Sound Recording : Santiago Bertolino et Hugo Samson
Production : Lucie Pageau (Productions Multi-Monde)
Financial partners
Télé-Québec
Direction
Santiago Bertolino
Santiago Bertolino is an independent director and scriptwriter. Amazonia, an encounter with the guardians of the rainforest is his fourth full-length documentary. NIN E TEPUEIAN (My Cry), his 3rd full-length documentary, was released in Quebec in January 2020. A portrait of Innu artist Natasha Kanapé Fontaine, produced by Le Studio Via le Monde Inc.
In 2016, Santiago Bertolino directed Freelancer on the front lines. This film produced by the ONF follows the journey of a freelance journalist in the war zone of the Middle East. The shootings took him to Iraqi Kurdistan, Israel, Palestine, Egypt and Turkey. In 2013, he co-directed his first feature film with Hugo Samson, about Quebec students’ struggle against tuition fee hikes, the famous Student Spring. Red Square on a Blackboard, which premiered on Télé-Québec, won two Gémeaux awards: Best Documentary on Social Issues and Best Screenplay.
Filmography
AMAZONIA, AN ENCOUNTER WITH THE GUARDIANS OF THE RAINFOREST, 2024, 97 min, documentary
NIN E TEPUEIAN – MY CRY, 2019, 82 min, documentary
FREELANCER ON THE FRONT LINES, 2016, 97 min, documentary
RED SQUARE ON A BLACKBOARD, 2013, 110 min, documentary
STONES ALONE WILL NOT STOP THE OCCUPATION, 2010, 14 min, documentary
Hugo Samson
Hugo Samson co-directed his first documentary, Red Squre on a blackboard (2012), with filmmaker Santiago Bertolino. He also worked on Fernando Arrabal: grand rectum de l’Université de Foulosophie (2012) by François Gourd as the co-writer and film editor, and as director of photography on Pouding Chômeur (2015) by Bruno Chouinard
Filmography
Pouding Chômeur (de Bruno Chouinard), director of photography (2015 / 70 min)
Red Squre on a blackboard (2013 / 110 min)
Fernando Arrabal: grand rectum de l’Université de Foulosophie (de François Gourd), co-writer and film editor (2012 / 70 min)