Beyond December 6
1991 · 28m · Canada
Directed by Catherine Fol
Genres: biography, documentary
Tones: contemplative, tender
A year after the École Polytechnique shooting that killed fourteen women, survivor Nathalie Provost opens up with friends about feminism, racism, sexism, and carrying on with life.
Picked by Margot
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Everyone expects a trauma doc to be cathartic or rage-filled, so Fol does something weirder—she lets the conversation meander into feminism and racism without resolving anything, which feels almost reckless in 1991 and honestly makes it more alive than it has any right to be.
A masterclass in restraint: Fol positions herself as listener rather than narrator, trusting the formal rigor of intimate group testimony to carry the weight of historical reckoning, and the film's refusal of easy closure situates it firmly in a lineage of essay-documentaries that argue through presence rather than argument.
The decision to keep the camera still and let Nathalie's voice—and the voices of those around her—do the architectural work is the whole film; it's a technical choice that sounds simple but requires absolute confidence to sustain for 28 minutes without flinching toward sentiment.