The Champions, Part 1: Unlikely Warriors
1978 · 57m · Canada
Directed by Donald Brittain
Genres: biography, documentary, historical
Tones: contemplative
Pierre Trudeau and René Lévesque rise from 1950s universities to national prominence by 1967.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
A stately political biography from the NFB vault—competent, respectful, and precisely the kind of consensus documentary that makes me wonder what Brittain *didn't* show us about these two men; the real subversion would've been letting the archive breathe.
Brittain's 1978 excavation of Trudeau and Lévesque's intellectual origins is a masterclass in documentary lineage, situating personal ambition within the postwar university ferment that shaped Quebec and Canada—the kind of formally rigorous historical essay that rewards close attention to montage and voiceover restraint.
The decision to begin with their university years rather than their political apotheosis is quietly radical; by letting us watch ideas crystallize before power arrives, Brittain builds credibility on a shoestring archive, and it's that structural choice—not the subject matter—that makes the film breathe.