''Unité 9'' (or, in
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
, “Unit 9”) is a
Québec television
series
Series may refer to:
People with the name
* Caroline Series (born 1951), English mathematician, daughter of George Series
* George Series (1920–1995), English physicist
Arts, entertainment, and media
Music
* Series, the ordered sets used in ...
broadcast from 2012 through 2019 on
Radio Canada
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (french: Société Radio-Canada), branded as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian public broadcaster for both radio and television. It is a federal Crown corporation that receives funding from the government ...
,
[Josée Guimond]
«Téléromans: rires, larmes et hockey»
("Soap operas: laughs, tears and hockey") rchive ''Le Soleil
Le Soleil ("The Sun") is the name of several newspapers:
* ''Le Soleil'' (Quebec), a French-language daily newspaper in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada, founded in 1896
* ''Le Soleil'' (French newspaper), a defunct daily newspaper based in Paris fro ...
'', 25 August 2012 (accessed 15 August 2020). the
CBC French-language service. Created by dramatist
Danielle Trottier, the show has since 2013 been syndicated on France's
TV5Monde
TV5Monde (), formerly known as TV5, is a French public television network, broadcasting several channels of French-language programming. It is an approved participant member of the European Broadcasting Union.
The network is available across ...
network.
[Fabien]
«L’Unité 9 ouvre ses portes dès ce soir sur TV5Monde»
("Unit 9 opens its doors from this evening on TV5Monde"), ''Critictoo,'' 28 October 2013 (accessed 15 August 2020). The 169-show series has been one of the most-watched shows in Québec, with ratings of up to two million viewers
[Hugo Dumas]
«Unité 9 refusé à TVA»
rchive '' La Presse'', 18 December 2012, (accessed 15 August 2020). for the 44-minute episodes.
Synopsis
Marie Lamontagne, a mother of two, having been convicted for attempted murder, lives in Unit 9 of Lietteville, a federal penitentiary for women.
[Hugo Dumas]
«Unité 9: rien à voir avec Karla Homolka»
("Unit 9: nothing to do with Karla Homolka
Karla Leanne Homolka (born May 4, 1970), also known as Karla Leanne Teale, Leanne Teale, and Leanne Bordelais, is a Canadian serial killer who acted as an accomplice to her husband, Paul Bernardo, taking active part in the actual rapes and murde ...
") rchive ''La Presse'', 17 May 2012 (accessed 15 August 2020). As she adjusts to her new life in prison, with the help of other inmates, she learns about their relationships and why each of them was incarcerated, as well as the histories of the prison employees. In this new environment, Marie confronts Normand Despins, the prison director, who has a different conception concerning the rehabilitation of prisoners, and tries to show that everyone has the right to a second chance.
The fictional Lietteville is based on a real
women's prison located in
Joliette, Québec.
Series development
Danielle Trottier had the idea of making a series on the environment of a women's prison after reading Justice
Louise Arbour
Louise Bernice Arbour (born February 10, 1947) is a Canadian lawyer, prosecutor and jurist.
Arbour was the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, a former justice of the Supreme Court of Canada and the Court of Appeal for Ontario and a former ...
's 1996 report of the ''Commission of Inquiry into Certain Events at the Prison for Women in Kingston'',
[Louise Arbour, ]
Commission of Inquiry into Certain Events at the Prison for Women in Kingston
', Public Works and Government Services Canada, 1996. {{ISBN, 0-662-24355-2. Accessed 10 September 2020. Trottier's study of that report was the initial motivation for her concern over the plight of imprisoned women: "I cried and was angry after reading this report," she recalls. "I knew right away that I had found a good vein, and I haven't stopped reading about it since."
[Pierre-Étienne Caza, ]
Danielle Trottier: derrière les barreaux d'Unité 9
', ("Behind the bars of Unit 9", in French), UQAM Entrevues, ''Inter'', Winter 2013, Vol. 11, No. 1 rchived Accessed 10 September 2020. She then spent five years in researching, which included visits to the
Joliette women's prison. There she met several prisoners, whom she characterized as “intelligent, sensitive, extremely generous people, in the process of change.”
[Richard Therrien, ]
Unité 9: sept femmes en prison
' ("Unit 9: Seven women in prison", in French), 17 May 2012. Accessed 10 September 2020.
Series development began in earnest in 2008 with the
TVA
The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) is a Federal government of the United States, federally owned electric utility corporation in the United States. TVA's service area covers all of Tennessee, portions of Alabama, Mississippi, and Kentucky, an ...
network's filming of two
pilot
An aircraft pilot or aviator is a person who controls the flight of an aircraft by operating its directional flight controls. Some other aircrew members, such as navigators or flight engineers, are also considered aviators, because they a ...
episodes.
By March 2010 the network had declined to commission more episodes, stating that they preferred targeting a more family-oriented audience. "I came with people who led rather turbulent lives. This wasn't the type of story they were looking for, and they had a perfect right to do so," Trottoir told ''
Le Soleil
Le Soleil ("The Sun") is the name of several newspapers:
* ''Le Soleil'' (Quebec), a French-language daily newspaper in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada, founded in 1896
* ''Le Soleil'' (French newspaper), a defunct daily newspaper based in Paris fro ...
''.
[Richard Therrien, ]
«Unité 9: une journée à Lietteville»
' ("Unit 9: a day at Lietteville," in French rchived, 23 March 2013, Le Soleil. Accessed 13 September 2020. A year and a half later, she and
screenwriter-
producer Fabienne Larouche
Fabienne is a feminine French and English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, o ...
jointly turned to Radio-Canada to support the production, and gained the go-ahead from that network in January 2012.
References
2012 Canadian television series debuts
2019 Canadian television series endings
Television shows filmed in Quebec
Ici Radio-Canada Télé original programming
2010s prison television series
Television shows set in Quebec
Imprisonment and detention of women
2010s Canadian crime drama television series