Le Devoir, Part 1: 1910-1945, Do What You Must
1973 · 27m · Canada
Directed by Hugues Poulin, Jean-V. Dufresne
Genres: documentary, historical
Tones: contemplative
From its founding in 1910 under Henri Bourassa's motto 'do what you must,' Montreal daily Le Devoir asserts its independence, including through debates over wartime conscription.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
A newspaper archive doc from 1973 sounds like the opposite of subversive, but Poulin and Dufresne's restraint—letting editorial independence speak through dusty mastheads and wartime debates rather than some triumphalist narrative—is quietly radical in how it refuses to grandstand.
This is archival curating at its finest: a measured essay on institutional conscience that positions Le Devoir within the lineage of North American independent press, letting period typography and newsprint breathe as formal arguments rather than mere illustration.
The decision to let the newspaper itself become the visual language—privileging masthead design, column layouts, and the physical texture of print over talking heads—transforms what could be rote institutional history into something tactile and genuinely moving on a shoestring.