“Marioupol” without ads on Radio-Canada!

Has Radio-Canada finally understood that there are programs that are obscene to intersperse with advertisements?

Last Thursday evening, RDI presented the moving documentary 20 days in Mariupol on the show 24/60 by Anne-Marie Dussault. A 93 minutes of heartbreaking images, unbearable scenes and heartbreaking cries for help that it would have been odious to interrupt with advertising messages. How execrable it is that the public broadcaster continues to do this in its newscasts. A common practice that I have denounced for years, like Alain Saulnier, Tony Berman and most of those who were responsible for information at CBC/Radio-Canada.

But I was told that we owe this sudden flash of good judgment not to Radio-Canada, but rather to the film’s director, Ukrainian Mstyslav Tchernov, who risked his life to record the horrifying images of the siege of Mariupol . He and the other producers, the Associated Press and Frontline PBS, would impose a condition on the channels and platforms that broadcast the film not to intersperse it with advertisements.

A FILM YOU MUST SEE

The director, his photographer, Evgeniy, and journalist Vasylisa Stepanenko found themselves stuck in Mariupol in February 2022 at the time of the Russian invasion. For twenty days, they recorded in photos and videos the horror of the siege and the atrocities suffered by thousands of citizens and children of the martyred city. Accomplished without rest and in constant fear of being riddled with bullets or buried under the rubble of bombed buildings, their valiant work earned them the Pulitzer Prize.

I strongly urge those who have not yet seen this documentary to tune into ICI TOU.TV or YouTube before it is no longer on display. It is not out of sympathy for the Ukrainians that this film has just won the Oscar for best feature documentary, the first Oscar won by Ukraine. The film had already won the Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival, the Jury and Audience Awards at the DocuDays Festival in Kyiv and the BAFTA for Best Documentary in Great Britain.

20 days in Mariupol is one of the most gripping films I have ever seen. Even the terrifying images we have seen of the destruction of Gaza over the past six months seem more bearable to me. This shows the inhuman violence of the siege of the port metropolis of Ukraine.

THE PRODUCERS, A MASTERSTROKE

Thank you, Serge Postigo, for having succeeded, on Sunday afternoon, in making me forget the terrible images of Mariupol with The producers. After playing the leading role in this musical nearly 400 times in Paris, Postigo reworked the text, directed it and reprized his role of Max Bialystock in a new production. Perhaps the best adaptation of a Broadway hit in our country.

This new version is long, but we don’t get bored for a second. The pace is fast, it’s funny, the music is catchy, Steve Bolton’s choreography is breathtaking and all the roles are played to perfection. In the first two roles, Postigo and Tommy Joubert have no other choice than excellence, because they would quickly be eclipsed by the sparkling Marianne Orlowski, a French artist who is taking her first steps in Quebec.

Mel Brooks’ work resumes at the Capitol on June 27. The perfect opportunity for the citizens of Quebec and surrounding areas to forget for three hours the cursed question of the 3^e link!