''Cotton Mill, Treadmill'' (french: On est au coton) is a

documentary film A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional film, motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". Bill Nichols (film critic), Bil ...

directed by

Denys Arcand Georges-Henri Denys Arcand (; born June 25, 1941) is a French Canadian film director, screenwriter and producer. His film ''The Barbarian Invasions'' won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Film in 2004. His films have also been nominated three f ...

, about the conditions of workers in the

textile industry The textile industry is primarily concerned with the design, production and distribution of yarn, cloth and clothing. The raw material may be natural, or synthetic using products of the chemical industry. Industry process Cotton manufacturi ...

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

. Despite being made in 1970, the film was held back by the

National Film Board of Canada The National Film Board of Canada (NFB; french: Office national du film du Canada (ONF)) is Canada's public film and digital media producer and distributor. An agency of the Government of Canada, the NFB produces and distributes documentary f ...

for political reasons, and not released to the general public until 1976.

Production

The film, then titled as ''Les informateurs'', was approved by the French Programme Committee in 1969. It was initially produced by Guy Coté, but was replaced by Pierre Maheu and Maheu handed control over to Marc Beaudet when the film was being edited. The director of French production,

Jacques Godbout Jacques Godbout, OC, CQ (born November 27, 1933) is a Canadian novelist, essayist, children's writer, journalist, filmmaker and poet. By his own admission a bit of a dabbler (''touche-à-tout''), Godbout has become one of the most important wri ...

, was replaced by Gilles Dignard during the production of the film. The plot of the film, now retitled to ''On est au coton'', shifted from being a three-part story about technocrats who serve as the backbone of the state to being about textile workers in Quebec. It was completed with a budget of $152,266 ()

Suppression

Commissioner Hugo McPherson ordered that all references to him be removed and Arcand replaced the censored areas with readings of McPherson's letter. Assistant NFB Film Commissioner

André Lamy André Lamy (19 July 1932 – 2 May 2010) was a Canadian film producer, who served as Canada's Government Film Commissioner from 1975 until 1979. In this position he was the Chairman of the National Film Board of Canada (NFB). Lamy was born in M ...

criticized multiple French productions, such as ''Cotton Mill, Treadmill'', ''

24 heures ou plus ''24 heures ou plus'' (also written as ''24 heures ou plus...'' or ''Vingt-quatre heures ou plus...'') is a radical political documentary about Quebec society, shot in 1971 and completed by director by Gilles Groulx by mid-January 1973. However, t ...

'', and '' Un pays sans bon sens!'', as being too biased or

separatist Separatism is the advocacy of cultural, ethnic, tribal, religious, racial, governmental or gender separation from the larger group. As with secession, separatism conventionally refers to full political separation. Groups simply seeking greate ...

and were ordered to not be released in 1970. The film was accused of promoting

class conflict Class conflict, also referred to as class struggle and class warfare, is the political tension and economic antagonism that exists in society because of socio-economic competition among the social classes or between rich and poor. The forms ...

and being

Marxist Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...

propaganda. Commissioner

Sydney Newman Sydney Cecil Newman (April 1, 1917 – October 30, 1997) was a Canadian film and television producer, who played a pioneering role in British television drama from the late 1950s to the late 1960s. After his return to Canada in 1970, Newman w ...

requested legal advice due to the film featuring members of

Front de libération du Québec The (FLQ) was a Marxist–Leninist and Quebec separatist guerrilla group. Founded in the early 1960s with the aim of establishing an independent and socialist Quebec through violent means, the FLQ was considered a terrorist group by the Canadia ...

calling for violence. Newman prohibited Arcand from including a reading of a complaint letter from a textile industry executive in the censored areas of the film. The length of the documentary decreased from 173 minutes to 162 minutes following cuts. The release of the film was blocked for several years due to its politically sensitive nature. The president of the Canadian Textile Institute wrote to Newman and criticized the film as being misrepresentative of the industry and Newman stated that he would not allow public screenings of the film until he was satisfied with the film himself. Newman ordered that the film could only be shown with either his or Lamy's permission, but he was unsuccessful in preventing the film from being shown at a NFB staff screening. Newman was quoted as stating that "there are many factual errors either through bad research or overzealous attempts to show the evils of capitalism. The general tone is a slashing attack on the English-controlled textile industry. I tell people, 'if you want to make a smear film, make sure you present invincible arguments.' This one didn't."

Release

In April 1970, Newman announced that the movie would not be released, but two

videotape Videotape is magnetic tape used for storing video and usually sound in addition. Information stored can be in the form of either an analog or digital signal. Videotape is used in both video tape recorders (VTRs) and, more commonly, videocassett ...

bootleg Bootleg or bootlegging most often refers to: * Bootleg recording, an audio or video recording released unofficially * Rum-running, the illegal business of transporting and trading in alcoholic beverages, hence: ** Moonshine, or illicitly made ...

versions, with one being uncut, were distributed. The film was shown at

Cégep du Vieux Montréal Cégep du Vieux Montréal is a CEGEP (Collège d'enseignement général et professionnel, or College of General and Vocational Education) located at 255 Ontario Street East, in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The College of General and Vocational Edu ...

from 31 May to 4 June, and bootleg copies were distributed across Canadian colleges. It was estimated that over 20,000 people watched the film by 1979. A letter signed by thirty-one textile unions affiliated with

Confédération des syndicats nationaux The Confédération des syndicats nationaux (CSN; Confederation of National Trade Unions) is the second largest trade union federation in Quebec by membership. History It was founded in Hull in 1921 as the ''Confédération des travailleurs c ...

calling for the release of the film was published by ''

Le Devoir ''Le Devoir'' (, "Duty") is a French-language newspaper published in Montreal and distributed in Quebec and throughout Canada. It was founded by journalist and politician Henri Bourassa in 1910. ''Le Devoir'' is one of few independent large-c ...

'' in 1971. An edited version of the film was released in 1976 by Lamy. Lamy felt that the film no longer needed to be withheld from distribution after the subsidence of political violence following the

October Crisis The October Crisis (french: Crise d'Octobre) refers to a chain of events that started in October 1970 when members of the Front de libération du Québec (FLQ) kidnapped the provincial Labour Minister Pierre Laporte and British diplomat James C ...

. Moreover, the ban on distribution of ''On est au coton'' and other films was contrary to the NFB's reputation for freedom and creativity. When Lamy learned that the Conseil québécois pour la diffusion du cinéma had decided to distribute an unlicensed copy of the film, he chose not to take legal measures, and released an edited version of the film. The film was not released in its original, uncensored form until 2004.

References

Works cited

External links

Watch ''On est au coton''