With the theatrical release date to be announced soon, the film poster and teaser for Les Rose (The Rose Family), a documentary by Félix Rose co-produced by the National Film Board of Canada and Babel Films, were released today. The film, which involved ten years of research, sheds new light on the inequality that prevailed in Quebec before the Quiet Revolution.
The director uses unpublished testimonials and rare archival footage of the FLQ, the 1970 October Crisis and other political events of the time, linked with the Rose family’s own photographs and stories, to document Quebec’s social and political struggles through the lens of a family’s experience—putting these pivotal episodes of modern Quebec history into context. For the filmmaker, who is Paul’s son and Jacques’s nephew, Les Rose marks the culmination of a personal quest to understand his father’s past and that of his family.
The Rose Familiy (Trailer 30s – Coming Soon) from NFB/marketing on Vimeo.
About the film
In October 1970, members of the Front de libération du Québec (FLQ) kidnapped the labour minister Pierre Laporte, sparking an unprecedented crisis in the province. Fifty years later, Félix Rose sets out to uncover what could have led his father and uncle—the Rose brothers, Paul and Jacques—to commit the acts that ultimately ended in the tragic death of their hostage. Important records left by his father and new details revealed by his uncle, who agreed to talk about his experience for the first time, allow the filmmaker to restore the heritage of a working-class Quebec family and place the October Crisis in its social context. Breathing new life into events and players until now known only through a handful of news snapshots, Les Rose provides a glimpse of the rebellious working-class youth of the time, frustrated by social barriers to their ambitions, whose protests sparked the upheavals that ensued.
About the filmmaker
Félix Rose developed his political and social consciousness at a young age, and he is passionate about history. While still in his teens, he discovered direct cinema and the work of Pierre Perrault. After studying film and television, he joined Babel Films, where he started as an editor and screenwriter for the web series Temps mort (2010–2012). He then turned to directing with the documentary Avec la gauche (2014), which follows a candidate for the Québec Solidaire party on the campaign trail. In 2017, with co-director Eric Piccoli, he made Yes, a film about a Quebec artist who travels to meet the people of Scotland on the eve of their independence referendum. Les Rose (2020) documents his personal quest to gain a better understanding of his family history and his father’s past actions, placing them against the backdrop of the social and political struggles that led to the events of October 1970.