Les Rose 2020

A man in his sixties recalls his youth: "The raids on those famous workers' committees. [...] Everyone's membership card was taken, then the police took all the files, and tossed them outside. This kind of ridiculous repression... opened our eyes." The man is Paul Rose. A few years later, in a village on the banks of the St. Lawrence, his brother Jacques, who has since passed away, talks to Paul's son: "We thought, the rules of democracy... when we call the shots, maybe we'll believe in them. But right now, they're made by cheaters. So, we'll play by the same rules."In October 1970, members of the Front de libération du Québec kidnapped provincial government minister Pierre Laporte. The events that followed would mark Quebec forever: the Canadian army being called in, the declaration of the War Measures Act, the imprisonment of some 500 people, and Laporte's death.While decrying this tragic turn of events, the kidnappers never repented nor showed remorse, preferring instead to accept full responsibility for their actions. Fifty years later, Félix Rose tries to understand what could bring his father Paul and his uncle Jacques to commit these acts, and in searching for answers, draws us into his family's history.The Roses were a working-class family from Ville Jacques-Cartier, on the South Shore of Montreal. They would find themselves at the centre of Quebec's stormy social and political scene for 10 years-especially mother Rose and her sons. Through intimate memories shared for the first time by his uncle Jacques, the legacy of his father, and his grandmother's powerful bond with her children, Félix Rose brings to life the rich, complex ties of a family whose lives bear witness to Quebec society prior to the Quiet Revolution.The Rose Family puts the October Crisis and the FLQ's actions in their proper social context by retracing the family's history, starting with a grandfather working at Redpath Sugar, then moving from Saint-Henri to the shacks of Ville Jacques-Cartier, from the Canadian National shop floor to the citizens' committees of the late 1960s. In restoring the workers' struggle to its central place in the FLQ narrative, the film highlights the magnitude of the social problems of the day, as experienced by a younger generation who were more educated, more aware of the issues, and, as a result, more outraged by the injustices their parents and friends faced.Later generations have come to see violence and terrorism as political dead ends. Without excusing the violence, Félix Rose allows us to glimpse the spirit of the times that made these means seem attractive and appropriate to some in the 1960s. It was an era in which, according to the FLQ, "democratic avenues were blocked" and when rights, in particular the rights of "the little guy," were regularly flouted.Thanks to an extraordinary trove of archival footage, The Rose Family allows us to experience moments and people we know only through a few oft-repeated cliché images. Now, the living and the dead come together in dialogue. While the film presents an intimate view of the Roses by focusing closely on them through archival family materials, it also shows how far we've come in the intervening decades. Many of the battles of the day are now nearly forgotten: the fight for improved prison conditions, equality for women in the justice system, and so on. And we get to rediscover the powerful figure of Rose Rose-a poorly educated woman of the people who has a lively intelligence, is keenly aware of social injustices, and who would have remained anonymous like countless other women during this pivotal era if it wasn't for her sons' dramatic fates.To make this film, a project that's both intensely personal and socially relevant, director Félix Rose (Yes, Avec la gauche) surrounded himself with a team of acclaimed creative collaborators. Director of photography Eric Piccoli's discreet camera work captures intensely intimate conversations. Editor Michel Giroux (The Memories of Angels, The Devil's Share) once again deftly blends archival and contemporary images, adding a poetic dimension to the film. Striking music by Philippe Brach and La Controverse is the perfect accompaniment to the story of the Roses over the course of a half century. Rosalie Rose, Félix's sister, served as sound recordist, and co-production duties were taken care of by teams from Babel Films (Philippe Allard, Marco Frascarelli, Eric Piccoli, Félix Rose) and the National Film Board of Canada (Colette Loumède).The result of thousands of hours of research and interviews carried out over nearly eight years, this documentary sheds new light on the social and political battles of an era in the not-so-distant past, through the story of one family with a controversial history.