In Our Own Way
1972 · 27m · Canada
Directed by Jack Zolov
Genres: documentary
Tones: contemplative, tender
Young social animators in Beauharnois and St-Hubert work to open a community workshop and help neighbours with housing, welfare and drug problems while celebrating their local environment.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
A 1972 doc about community activists solving housing and drugs in Quebec—sounds like PBS pablum, except Zolov trusts the footage enough to let it breathe, refusing the usual inspirational arc in favor of something messier and more alive.
Zolov's observational restraint places this firmly in the lineage of direct cinema, where formal patience becomes an ethical stance; the film's refusal to editorialize about its subjects' work becomes its own kind of argument about documentary responsibility.
The decision to stay intimate and handheld while the social stakes grow larger—never cutting away to abstractions or talking heads—means every ordinary moment of organizing carries its full weight.