Directed by
Ève Lamont
Country of Origin
Canada
Runtime
01:18:00
Category
At the Coop d’habitation St-Louis, everyone was able to find a home, security and a haven from the housing crisis. Filmed over two years in Gatineau, My Mom’s Co-op introduces us to a place where 42 individuals and their families take on the challenge of collective management. The filmmaker’s aging mother and the other members of the co-op resist the pull of the individualism in their daily lives, creating a better way of living together.
Director Biography – Ève Lamont
Documentary filmmaker, director and experienced camerawoman Ève Lamont is a free spirit who dives into the heart of social realities that are often obscured, listening to people seeking to regain power over their lives and questioning the established order. She has shed new light on current issues such as social exclusion, the scourges of agribusiness, sexual exploitation and needs for affordable housing. She has made her mark thanks to her in-depth research into the real world and her way of filming with proximity and empathy the people who remain in the shadows. Lamont’s work has been widely recognized and prized in Canada and abroad. All of her films have served as springboards for reflection and debate in the public space.
In her first feature-length documentary, Méchante Job (Bad Job – 2001), casual workers and the unemployed challenge the exploitation of labour as they seek alternatives to paid work. Her film SQUAT! (2002), which chronicled the occupation of a derelict building by homeless and youth activists, depict the alternative project put in jeopardy by the public authorities. It won the award for Best Direction, Feature-Length Documentary, and the Humanitarian Award at the 2003 HOT DOCS Festival. In Pas de pays sans paysans (The Fight For True Farming – 2005), Lamont met farmers opposing industrialized agriculture and working to replace it with a model of sustainable farming. In L’imposture (The Fallacy – 2010), she painted an intimate portrait of women seeking to exit the sex industry, followed up by Le commerce du sexe (The Sex Trade – 2015), exposing the hidden network fueling the sexual exploitation of women and girls. In Le chantier des possibles (Neighborhood Utopia – 2016), the filmmaker told the story of a working-class neighbourhood’s efforts to defend its vision of urban planning against an onslaught of real estate developers. In 2021-22, she directed a documentary series Pas une de plus (Not one more), that sensitively depicted women workers and residents in shelters for victims of domestic violence.