Seite 176 [176]
DERVILA COOKE
We should also note that the film focuses on Québec’s immigrant minorities
and not on its other, Aboriginal, minorities. In their analysis of Godbout’s
film, Leigh Oakes and Jane Warren make the point that the struggle for
survival and recognition of heritage is much more “urgent” for the Aboriginal
communities in Québec than it is for the Québécois population.’ Interestingly
(although Oakes and Warren do not note this), Godbout includes a statue
of an Aboriginal warrior or hunter in the second sequence of the film. In
this montage set to instrumental music, a series of statues evokes a sense
of Québec history. The camera lingers on statues of French colonizers, of a
mother with young children, an oriental figure, an ice hockey player and the
angel or goddess of liberty atop the Georges-Etienne Cartier monument in
Montreal. While the Aboriginal hunter-warrior is only a fleeting reference
in the film, it is an important one, as it comes first in the series of statues.
The camera angle and frame composition emphasize the intent expression
of the man’s face. This serves to remind the viewer that while Francophone
Quebecers are a minority in North America, other minorities need to be
heard too.
Godbout is quoted in a 2008 newspaper article by journalist Annabelle
Nicoud as saying that he preferred to “donner la parole aux immigrants” [give
immigrants their voice in this film], deciding against including analysis or
commentary by Quebecers of old-stock European settler heritage, or indeed
by historians.’ Given this commitment to privileging the voices of people
from non-majority groups, Godbout’s inclusion of the statue of the Aboriginal
hunter is a reminder that there are many types of cultural minorities in the
province. At the time of release of his film, indigenous peoples were starting
to make themselves heard again across Canada, in the run up to the 2015
report on Truth and Conciliation in “Indian” residential schools.
Godbout’s film also seems to suggest, as with Micone in Le Figuier
enchante, that it is not enough to merely speak French in an instrumentalist
or utilitarian manner, but that a feeling of connection between immigrants
and Francophones is also necessary. Initially, via the voiceover at the start
of the film, Godbout’s approach seems one-directional, as he focuses on
feelings of connection with established Francophones that he would like to
see emanating from the immigrant population. As the narrator, Godbout
calls this a sense of “integration”, noting that the hundreds of thousands of
young people of immigrant extraction are often far from being integrated.
” Leigh Oakes — Jane Warren, Language Policy and Unity in Québec: French as a Force for
Unity in a Diverse Society? in Catrin Norrby — John Hajek (eds.), Uniformity and Diversity
in Language Policy: Global Perspectives, Bristol — Buffalo — Toronto, Multilingual Matters,
2011, 7-21 (20).
® Anabelle Nicoud, Claude Godbout: touche-a-tous heureux, La Presse, 20 September 2008,
https://www.lapresse.ca/cinema/nouvelles/201207/17/01-4552912-claude-godbout-touche¬
a-tous-heureux.php (accessed 15 December 2019).
s 174 "