8 - Collective Memories

By Jean-Dominique and Danielle

Introduction

The collective memories of our ancestors is getting lost throughout the passing generations and advancing technology. The question we must ask ourselves are: do we really need the information of how things were done by our grandparents and great-grandparents? The two documentary films “Pour La Suite du Monde” and “Les Voitures D’eau” are the first and last movies of a trilogy filmed by Pierre Perrault and Michel Brault in the 1960’s. The particular interest in both films is the dying traditions of a community living on a small island in the St-Lawrence River, L’Île -aux-coudres. In the first film, “Pour La Suite du Monde”, Perrault and Brault approach the islanders and ask them to revive their old tradition of porpoise hunting. In the second film, third in the trilogy, “Les Voitures D’eau”, the film makers focus on the dying tradition of handmade wooden boats. Both films have a secondary focus on the lack or need of profit to perform each dying custom and the necessity to pass down knowledge from generation to generation. There are many reasons why past knowledge is being lost, some of which are portrayed in these films and were discussed in class. Now we will explore the topic further.

Part 1- Pour La Suite du Monde

“Pour La Suite du Monde” was directed by Pierre Perrault and filmed by Michel Brault in the year 1963. The film makers ventured to a small island in the St-Lawrence River named L’Île -aux-coudres where they collaborated with the islanders to revive the craft of porpoise hunting; a great tradition once popular for the islander’s ancestors. Three characters in particular held most of the interest in the film, Alexis Tremblay, his son Leopold Tremblay, the main liaison between the islanders and the documenters, and Grand-Louis Harvey.

Perrault and Brault began filming the small French community at the beginning of winter, a slow time for the islanders since all of the boats were retired while the river was frozen. This is when Leopold began taking action a planning his attempt to revive the whale catching. Leopold went to his father, Alexis, for assistance and a somewhat blessing on his pursuit, but what he received was discouragement and criticism. Alexis told his son that he would not be able to convince the elders of the community to help him with the hunt because there would be no money in the outcome, the elders wouldn’t be able to assist him physically because they are now old and tired, and that the younger members of the community would be unable to withstand the hardship of beluga trapping. Even though Leopold receive such negative enforcement from his father he brushed it off and continued to conduct his plans. Leopold went to visit other elders of the community who held knowledge of how to perform a hunt and asked them if they would be willing to support him financially, physically and with their know-how on hi exposition. Receiving positive feedback from a prime member of the older community, Grand-Louis Harvey, Leopold brought his plans to the people and asked in interested parties would take shares, donate money, to fund the hunt and if people would work with him. Also he announced that he reached out to an aquarium in New York that would purchase any live beluga they caught. With the older and younger members of the island working together the hunt is on. Starting when the ice melts leading up until the river refreezes, Leopold and other work long, hard days attempting to catch a porpoise. Managing to only catch and sell one of the whales the islanders are still thrilled that they could feel connected to their ancestors again and show their children what heritage they come from.

In class for week eight we discussed the difference of Direct Cinema and Cinema Verite, where Direct Cinema is in close ties with the observational mode of film and Cinema Verite is part of the interactive mode of film. “Pour La Suite du Monde” would fall under Direct Cinema for the filming is as though the cameraman, Brault, is a fly on the wall. However, as discussed in class, there is a tension between documentary and fiction since there is a loose script for the film; Perrault asking the community to revive the beluga hunt. We looked into authenticity and what it really means. When looking this documentary we have to think, where these scenes staged? and how each character is an actor at the same time. As a class we also went though all of the traditions and rituals seen during the movie. The biggest, and most relevant, tradition for the people of L’Île -aux-coudres is the porpoise hunting and trapping, however many others were seen such as the mid-lent festivities, dancing, the story about the role of the moon, the old fashioned style to the islanders clothing and many more. 

Part 2- Les Voitures D’eau

The documentary “Les Voitures D’eau”, filmed by Pierre Perrault and Michel Brault in 1967, is the third in a trilogy filmed on a small island in the St-Lawrence River, L’Île -aux-coudres. The first of the trilogy is the film that was watched in class “Pour La Suite du Monde”. Perrault and Brault work again with Leopold Tremblay along with Laurent Tremblay and his sons, Aurele and Yvan, only this time focusing on the disappearance of the traditional use of sailing wooden ships.

For the small island surrounded by water, growing up on a boat is not unusual. Perrault and Brault began the film on a traditional wooden ship with Laurent talking about his love for being a sailor. At this point the river is beginning to freeze meaning that it is time for the sailor to retire their boats for the winter and begin any repairs that need to be done before it gets too cold. Amongst the men, mostly sailor, there is discussion about how expensive the repairs are for their wooden ships and how non profitable it is to continue sailing. Perreault follows the group of men as they build small sail boats from scratch and talk about the hardships and frustration that the sailors of the island are facing with steal boats putting them out of business. Each sailor expresses how he would not give up sailing because of his love for the sea, but other circumstances come into play, as the wooden ships reach a certain age they are not liable to get insured, making any damages that much more difficult to pay for, and the amount of debt that owning a boat puts them in. When the ice breaks life starts up again for the sailors. After Leopold and the group of men finish working of the sailing boats they take them out for a spin, racing and trying to make them “fly”. Finishing off the film, symbolizing the takeover of steal ships, is the burning of an old, damaged wooden ship, which owner could not offered to get repaired. Stated by one of the sailors “It’s good to be ambitious, but it takes to much money.”

Like “Pour La Suite du Monde” this film also fall under the category of Direct Cinema. The sailors on the island are followed though out their winter lives and observed while they talk amongst themselves. Although there is more apparent interviewing going on by Perrault where some of the men will talk directly to the camera, acknowledging that they are being filmed and possibly answering direct questions. This causes more belief to think about the use of staging scenes in this documentary, which would stray from the category of Direct Cinema into Cinema Verite.

Full movie "Les Voiture D'eau"

Part 3- Reflection

Both documentaries “Pour la suite du monde” and “Les Voitures D’eau” are about the normal phenomenon of the abandonment of the tradition from the past through the present. In other words, it shows the confrontation of the past with the present. This confrontation can be explained by the fact that the lifestyle from “yesterday” and the lifestyle from “today” obviously are not the same.

Mme Alexis (Marie) Tremblay

These documentaries give us the opportunity to reflect about ourselves. Through the evolution of the world with the industrialization and the arrival of the technology, the mentality of people living on the world begins to change completely. People in our days are more independent and the world is more based on individualism than collectivism. We do not know our own neighbours because people are more selfish. In the past, everybody knew everybody in the villages. One fact that can explain this situation is that technology was not there and people was talking right in front the other person instead of being hidden behind a screen. Also, when people had troubles for any reasons there was always a kind of mutual aid between the villagers. The society of our days suffers in some point of a lack of communication. This lack of communication is one of the reasons that the traditions are slowly left in oblivion.

The documentary “Pour la suite du monde” opposes and wants to create awareness about the fact that some traditions are falling in the unknowing. Indeed, the filmmakers through their documentary wanted to revive a lost tradition from “L’Île-aux-Coudres” which was the whales hunt. The tradition was lost since 37 years. The title of this documentary which is “Pour la suite du monde” is a very powerful title because it summarizes on his own what the film is talking about. The documentary is about transmitting the tradition through the following generation. This fact means that the tradition will survive even if the time goes on. This documentary does not only revive the whales hunt but it will make this tradition alive for the eternity. Also, all the other traditions of the islanders (celebration of mid-Lent, Easter water, auctions, etc...) and the special language which they have “la parlure” will stay alive even if they are no more there anymore on the “L’Île-aux-Coudres”. Here is the meaning of this title, preparing the next generation to receive the tradition of the older generation.
The documentary “Les Voitures D’eau” denounces the collapsing of the little companies against the big ones. This film shows us that with the industrialisation when you are a small company, it is difficult to prosper because the world of commerce is controlled by the biggest companies. In this world the competition is very intense and this competition does not give any chance for the small companies to compete. Also, the industrialisation is the cause of the loss of many jobs because humans are replaced by machines. The big companies use machines instead of humans because they do not have any salary to pay and the machines allow to the companies to produce more because they work faster.

It makes open our eyes about the fact that we are just a number for the companies. They do not care about people. The only goal they want to accomplish is to make always more money with the lower costs.

Conclusion

The identity of a person is forged through the traditions and everything she has absorbed throughout her life (stories, language, religion, etc...). The traditions help to understand how a society or people of a village are living this way and how they acquired this lifestyle. In the film “Pour la suite du monde” the islanders are rediscovering the whales hunt which was abandoned during 37 years. By rediscovering this tradition, they will be able to transmit it to the next generations to come to perpetuated it. In this way, they transmit their history. In the film “Les Voitures D’eau”, the passion for navigation is transmitted from father to son. But, in our days, the times come harder due to the encroachment of the big companies and the succession is jeopardized. Both of these traditions are specific to the history of “L’Île-aux-Coudres”

Second movie in the Trilogy.

Full movie "Regne du Jour"

Tribute to Pierre Perrault