Backyard Theatre
1973 · 27m · Canada
Genres: documentary, essay film
Tones: humorous, theatrical
Playwright Michel Tremblay and director André Brassard bring the earthy wit and joual of Montreal's East End to the stage, seen through improvisations by the casts of two landmark plays.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
A 1973 essay doc about joual theatre improvisation should be a snooze—instead it's a sly deconstruction of how 'authenticity' gets staged, which means Tremblay and Brassard are basically roasting the whole premise while you watch it happen.
This is essential lineage work: Tremblay's joual revolution documented in real time by Brassard, positioned exactly where it belongs in Québécois theatrical history, with the formal clarity to show *why* these improvisations mattered as both art and cultural statement.
The choice to let the improvisations breathe without heavy-handed narration—just the raw dialect and physical comedy of the actors—is what lets a 27-minute doc about rehearsal process become actually alive instead of archival.