Director
Bruno Baillargeon
Production
Bruno Baillargeon with Les Vues du jardin
Languages
Italian, Creole, French, English
116 min, documentary, Quebec, Canada, 2008
In the heart of a North American city, a cast of retired Haitian and Italian immigrants tend their gardens, planted on a vast vacant lot soon to be replaced by a highway.
Synopsis
The film takes place within this formerly agricultural wasteland, now dominated by high-voltage power lines, where each passing spring is witness to the rebirth of these gardens in exile. A lush, uniquely pastoral tableau emerges, while echoes of the omnipresent city resonate off camera. Against this backdrop, a double menace lurks: that of the impending disappearance of this green space, to be replaced by asphalt, and that, more dramatic, of the disappearance of a generation of immigrants, born in the countryside but urbanized by fate, who have come here in search of their rural roots, reviving the ageold traditions of the land they left behind. Over the seasons of planting, harvesting and friendly conversation, the common theme that emerges is that of the land.
Credits
Photography, Sound and Direction : Bruno Baillargeon
Editing : René Roberge
Sound Editing : Olivier Calvert
Sound Mixing : Clovis Gouailler
Production : Bruno Baillargeon / Les Vues du jardin
Financial partners
Conseil des arts du Canada
Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec
Aide au cinéma indépendant canadien (ACIC – ONF)
Bruno Baillargeon
Bruno Baillargeon has a PhD in comparative litterature. He has been producing, editing, writing and directing fiction and documentary films since 1991.
L’œuvre des jours, 105 min, Documentary, 2014
Un jardin sous les lignes, 117 min, Documentary, 2008
La formation pas à pas, 22 min, Documentary, 2008
Spécial cas, 45 min, Documentary, 2008
La santé au travail, une histoire de cœur, 35 min, Documentary, 2007
6 fictions sur un thème de Gilles Groux, 18 min, Fiction, 2006
Orage sur le Bellavista, 190 min, Documentary, 2005
Les chercheurs d’or, 70 min, Documentary, 2002
Le Beau top, 11 min, Documentary, 2001
Jacques Forgues, chauffeur dramaturge, 12 min, Documentary, 2000
Le Prix de la vie, 52 min, Documentary, 1998
Les Galeries Wilderton, 12 min, Documentary, 1992