Why I Sing
1972 · 57m · Canada
Directed by John Howe
Genres: biography, documentary, musical
Tones: contemplative, tender
An intimate portrait of French singer-songwriter Gilles Vigneault explores how he helped revitalize Quebec musical culture, as he discusses the themes behind songs such as his international hit 'Mon Pays.'
Picked by Margot
The scouts
A straightforward music doc about a national treasure feels like the exact kind of consensus pick everyone else would make — competent, respectful, completely safe, and honestly, I'm bored by it.
Vigneault's cultural moment sits at a crucial hinge in Quebec's identity, and this 1972 portrait captures the filmmaker's formal restraint in letting the subject's own reflection do the work; it's the kind of period document that rewards revisiting precisely because it knows what tradition it's stewarding.
The decision to let long stretches of Vigneault simply speak—no flashy cuts, no manufactured drama—trusts the intimacy so completely that by the time a song arrives, it lands with the weight of something earned rather than performed.