Back to school TV | Six documentaries not to miss

Violence against women, the attack on the Quebec mosque and slavery are among the themes addressed by some of the documentaries broadcast at the start of winter. A glance at six productions.

Alexandre Vigneault
Press

I believed in you

Coach Bertrand Charest was found guilty of sexual assault and breach of trust against nine skiers aged 12 to 19 in June 2017 for crimes dating back to the 1990s. Geneviève Simard is the one of them. It is through her that the director Sophie Lambert seeks to understand how the necessary relationship of trust between an athlete and his trainer can lead to abuse and how a person in a position of authority, whom families trust to guide their young athletes, can take advantage of the situation and turn into a predator.

On ICI Télé, as part of Doc Humanity, January 22 at 10:30 p.m.

A Quebec still crazy about its children?

Three decades after the report A Quebec mad about its children, the president of the working group which carried out it, Camil Bouchard, and other experts take stock. In six 30-minute episodes, the series questions the legacy of this report, its successes and failures. The first episode airs on International Education Day.

On Savoir Média, starting January 24 at 8 p.m.

Woman i kill you

Nearly 20 suspected feminicides or feminicides made headlines last year in Quebec. Woman i kill you recalls that in 2020, a woman was killed every two and a half days in Canada. Hence the quest of Ingrid Falaise and Sarah Bernard who, through interviews with relatives of the victims, seek to bring to light the fatal “gear” which led to these assassinations. Each episode dwells on a tragedy, wondering if it could have been avoided. The series first looks at the case of Clémence Beaulieu-Patry, 20, murdered by Randy Tshilumba, a young man of the same age whose advances she had refused a few days before his death.

On Investigation, starting January 25 at 10 p.m.

Slaves

Actor Samuel L. Jackson (narrator and executive producer) is one of the pillars of this 2020 documentary series that looks back on 400 years of the African slave trade by exploring the seabed (where many ships and where millions of people perished to be sold), examining the arguments that made this human trafficking justifiable at the time and bringing to light the economic system of which it was part. The six-part series ends with the political struggles that led to the end of slavery in the West.

On ICI Tou.tv Extra from January 28 and on RDI from February 3

Mosque attack – A duty to remember

On January 29, 2017, an Islamophobic terrorist act was perpetrated at the Islamic Cultural Center of Quebec. Results: six dead and four seriously injured. Five years later, the documentary Mosque attack – A duty to remember dwells on the repercussions of this tragedy in Quebec society and looks at “individual and collective initiatives” aimed at bringing people closer together. The documentary, described as “sober”, is also interested in a similar attack which occurred in New Zealand a year later and which would have been inspired by that of Quebec.

On ICI Télé, as part of Doc Humanity, January 29 at 10:30 p.m.

In the shadow of the Star Wars Kid

Almost 20 years ago, in 2003, a video showing young Trifluvien Ghyslain Raza playing imitating a Star Wars character wielding a lightsaber went viral. It was before YouTube, before Facebook and all the other social media we know today that ignite the powder in no time. However, the teenager still became a victim of cyberbullying on a global scale. Ghyslain Raza tells his story on the screen in a film that questions “virality” and its consequences on the lives of people whose images are massively broadcast.

On Télé-Québec, March 30 at 8 p.m.