Life at any cost
If we know little or little about surrogacy, the new Canal Vie documentary series directed by Madeleine Cantin, carriers of life, paints a rich portrait of the situation in Quebec and, in fact, calls it into question. As a reminder, the use of surrogate mothers has been legal in Canada since 2004, but our province prohibits the conventions that govern the practice. In other words, there can be no established contract, which generates a process based solely on trust, as pointed out by Isabel Côté, full professor in the Department of Social Work at the Université du Québec en Outaouais, from the first episode. The main consequence of this legislation is that families prefer to move to Ontario to give, and receive, life.
This is particularly the case of Amélie Lemieux, who wants more than anything to continue to be called “mom”. She has indeed lost her two daughters, Romy and Norah Carpentier, killed by their father in tragic circumstances during summer 2020. Today, she is doing everything possible to have a third child and, to do this, must have recourse to a surrogate woman since she can no longer be pregnant. With great generosity, Amélie Lemieux therefore allowed Madeleine Cantin’s camera to penetrate her daily life, punctuated by back and forth between Quebec and Ontario.
carriers of life is all the more interesting and moving in that it also gives the floor to several of these female carriers, thus enlightening viewers on the reasons that push them to engage in such self-sacrifice.
carriers of life
Canal Vie, Thursday, 8 p.m., starting April 13
When death comes out of the shadows
With life inevitably comes the question of death. Rose-Aimée Autumn T. Morin, who grew up alongside a father condemned by cancer, wishes with her latest documentary to raise awareness among parents and children about the realities of bereavement. Based on her experience, the journalist and author of the essay Your absence belongs to me and novel He preferred to burn them went to meet the fathers and mothers of families who have been diagnosed with an incurable disease in order to discuss with them the heartbreaking preparation for this imminent departure.
Moreover, The bereavement legacy directly engages in a discussion with several people whose parent died during childhood. The objective is simple: to appease, defuse and change mentalities, sometimes awkward, about bereavement, because not all young people who have to face the death of a loved one have the same needs. The very didactic documentary directed by Maude Sabbagh is however never dramatic, and expresses a lot of compassion for all those who are directly or indirectly concerned. Rose-Aimée Autumn T. Morin finally brings some resources and tools for educating on grief, while emphasizing that there is no one way to react to the “after” and that loneliness is not inevitable. .
The bereavement legacy
ICI TV, Saturday, 10:30 p.m.
Reinvent yourself with Rita Baga
Drag queen Rita Baga, helped by her fellow hosts, invites viewers to transform themselves with confidence and joie de vivre on the occasion of very special evenings.
In the series The drag in me, Rita Baga thus puts on the clothes of an event organizer – wedding, prom, reunion, birthday, etc. —, while Sasha Baga gets down to styling and hairdressing and Pétula Claque executes with precision the make-up that has made her famous. Their mission is to make their guests feel good while entertaining the general public in a colorful television adventure.
The drag in me
Canal Vie, Wednesday, 9 p.m., starting April 12
A wind of emancipation
Head to francophone and patriarchal Manitoba of the 1960s with the Canadian radio fiction series El Toro. This one, written and directed by Franco-Manitoban Danielle Sturk, follows the Charbonneaus as one of the daughters, Rosie, decides to study literature at Provencher College in Saint-Boniface rather than devote her life to the restaurant. family. Since “curiosity is the basis of all education”, in the words of a nun who teaches Rosie, Françoise Sagan’s cult work Hello Sadness does not fail to make a stir within the newly indebted family.
Special mention for the cast, whose promising Rachel Kramer plays the main role, who excels in each of the six episodes, tinged with a lot of feminism and a touch of black humor.
El Toro
HERE Tout.tv, from April 13
A thriller on Apple TV+
Adapted from bestseller by American novelist Laura Dave, who also acts as screenwriter and producer with Josh Singer,The Last Thing He Told Me notably stars Jennifer Garner (A.k.a). The actress embodies a mother-in-law torn between the disappearance of her husband and her conflicting relationship with Bailey (Angourie Rice), the latter’s daughter.
From the first images, the fiction thus establishes a dark climate of tension. Note also that Reese Witherspoon is the executive producer, as was the case with Big Little Lies And The Morning Show.
The Last Thing He Told me
Apple TV+, from April 14
spring renewal
Radio-Canada offers its viewers two returns: the twelfth season of the popular culinary competition hosted by Élyse Marquis The Chiefs !and Jean-Philippe Wauthier’s program Good evening !, with Garou and Karine Vanasse as first guests.
There will also be season 2 of the documentary series Decolonizing History on the Télé-Québec website and, in a completely different tone, the 3e reality tv season the island of love at VAT.
The Chiefs !
ICI Télé, Monday, 8 p.m., starting April 10
Good evening !
ICI Télé, Monday to Thursday, 9 p.m., starting April 10
Decolonizing History
Telequebec.tvfrom April 13
the island of love
VAT, Monday to Thursday, 9 p.m., starting April 10