''À St-Henri le cinq septembre'' (English release title: ''September Five at Saint-Henri'') is a 1962

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 ...

(NFB) documentary film directed by

Hubert Aquin Hubert Aquin (24 October 1929 – 15 March 1977) was a Quebec novelist, Activism, political activist, essayist, filmmaker and editor. Aquin was born in Montreal and graduated from the Université de Montréal in 1951. From 1951 to 1954, he stu ...

about the first day of school for children and their families in the working class

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple ...

district of Saint-Henri. As Aquin was primarily a writer, he worked with a variety of cameramen. The NFB credits 11 on the film— Guy Borremans,

Michel Brault Michel Brault, OQ (25 June 1928 – 21 September 2013) was a Canadian cinematographer, cameraman, film director, screenwriter, and film producer. He was a leading figure of Direct Cinema, characteristic of the French branch of the Na ...

Georges Dufaux Georges Dufaux (; March 17, 1927 in Lille, France – November 8, 2008 in Switzerland) was a Canadian documentary film director and cinematographer. Biography After graduating in 1953 from the École nationale de photographie et de ciném ...

, Claude Fournier, Bernard Gosselin, Jean Roy,

Claude Jutra Claude Jutra (; March 11, 1930 – November 5, 1986) was a Canadian actor, film director, and screenwriter.

Bernard Devlin Bernard Devlin, (December 15, 1824 – February 7, 1880) was an Irish-born lawyer, counsel to the Abraham Lincoln administration of the United States Government during the most northerly engagement of the United States Civil War, Quebec-b ...

Arthur Lipsett Arthur Lipsett (May 13, 1936 – May 1, 1986) was a Canadian avant-garde director of short collage films. Life and career Born in Montreal into a Jewish family, Lipsett saw his mother, an immigrant from Kiev, commit suicide when he was 10 years ...

, Don Owen and Daniel Fournier. Caroline Zéau in her book ''L'Office national du film et le cinéma canadien (1939-2003): éloge de la frugalité'' states that as many as 28 filmmakers worked on the project, including the entire French production team, with

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 ...

reading narration. The film was originally released in French as a 42-minute film. The English-language version is shorter, with a 27-minute running time.

Reaction

While the filmmakers sought to make a socially activist film by portraying conditions in the poor neighbourhood, some residents were so dismayed by their depiction in the film that they withdrew their children from school and moved out of the area. In subsequent NFB films such as

Fernand Dansereau Fernand Dansereau (born April 5, 1928) is a Canadian film director and film producer. Biography After five years working as a reporter for the Montreal daily Le Devoir, Dansereau joined the NFB in 1955. He was a founding member of the NFB's ...

's ''Saint-Jérôme'', filmmakers sought to involve residents in a participatory filmmaking process, so as to avoid such a negative reaction.

Sequel

In 2011, director

Shannon Walsh Shannon Walsh is a Canadian filmmaker, writer and scholar. She has directed the feature documentaries ''The Gig Is Up'', ''H2Oil'' ,''À St-Henri, le 26 août'', ''Jeppe on a Friday'' and ''Illusions of Control''. She has also directed music vi ...

assembled 16 filmmakers to once again record the first day of school for children in Saint-Henri, in the NFB/ Parabola Films documentary ''À St-Henri, le 26 août''.

References

External links

''À Saint-Henri le cinq septembre''
an
''À St-Henri, le 26 août''
at the National Film Board of Canada * {{DEFAULTSORT:Saint-Henri le cinq septembre, A Documentary films about Montreal 1962 films 1962 documentary films Le Sud-Ouest National Film Board of Canada documentaries Quebec films French-language Canadian films 1960s Canadian films

Reaction

Sequel

See also

References

External links