The Cinematheque

Free Admission

“Bonnie Sherr Klein’s tough-minded interrogation of the 1980s pornography boom was released into a volatile political environment that practically guaranteed the film instant notoriety and misunderstanding. Deeming pornography a danger, some prominent feminists had made unlikely common cause with the burgeoning religious right to advocate censorship—a tactic which infuriated many leftists. Klein’s film gives space to both sides of the debate—feminist thinkers such as Margaret Atwood and Kate Millett; pro-porn advocates such as poet, performance artist, and stripper Lindalee Tracey—even as it refuses to conceal the filmmaker’s shock at what she witnesses in the ​‘adult entertainment’ industry. Not a Love Story remains a tough and exceedingly uncomfortable viewing experience—not to mention a still-relevant one” (Steve Gravestock, Canada on Screen digital catalogue).

preceded by

Bûcherons de la Manouane
(Manouane River Lumberjacks)
Canada 1962
Arthur Lamothe
28 min. DCP

The influential social documentarian Arthur Lamothe, ​“Canada’s greatest ethnographic filmmaker” (Take One), was born in France and immigrated to Quebec in the 1950s; he worked for a time in a lumberjack camp. His first film, depicting lumberjack life in central Quebec, is one of his greatest: a masterful portrait of a traditional existence on the verge of disappearing.