Family Business
2012 · 26m · Canada
Directed by Justin Guitard
Genres: documentary, family
Tones: contemplative, humorous, tender
Nicole and Fabien run a general store in Pointe-Verte, New Brunswick, for 109 hours a week with help from their children. Nearing retirement after thirty years, the parents hold the fort while their kids imagine different futures.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
Everyone expects the sad decline narrative here, but Guitard refuses it—instead he finds the comedy and stubborn grace in a family that just *keeps showing up*, which is somehow more radical than any twist ending could be.
A formally patient documentary that trusts observational stillness and the rhythms of small-town labor; the film knows exactly what lineage it inherits from Vérité cinema and executes it with unshowy precision across 26 minutes that feel like a season.
The decision to let 109 hours unfold through accumulated moments rather than dramatic peaks—letting a child's offhand comment or a parent's tired smile carry the entire emotional weight—transforms what could've been a pity piece into something genuinely alive.