In a tiny house in the town of Destor, near Rouyn-Noranda on Highway 101 North, Scott, a repeat ex-con in his fifties, lives quietly with Jessie, his girlfriend 23 years his junior. He spends his time meditating and doing 3D puzzles while Jessie spends hers collecting dolphin figures, dancing to “Summer Love” and smoking weed. Wanting to make a documentary on Scott’s social reintegration, social worker Anick moves in to their house for a few days. While the shoot starts off smoothly, with several funny and touching interviews of Scott and Jessie, things quickly derail. Anick seems more interested in Jessie than Scott. The documentary’s subjectivity is quickly replaced by a growing attraction between Anick and Jessie. The continuous presence of the filmmaker in the enclosed space, coupled with the exasperation Scott feels at being constantly recorded, is causing the pressure to escalate. Scott could lose it at any time.
Unfairly dismissed from his duties for trying to catch a white-collar bandit, Jean-Guy Simard leaves the tax office with one fixed idea: to get revenge by making a video on the rules of tax avoidance. From Geneva to Bermuda, his strange investigation takes the form of a Dadaist and irreverent comedy, in which he plays all the roles at once, throughout an exposé where the power of money gradually confronts him with his own demons.
With its fluid arrangement of black and white scenes paired with an immersive soundscape, Je me souviens d’un temps où personne ne joggait dans ce quartier is a celebration of the many faces of Park Extension. The film provides a glimpse inside a festive cultural gathering; the workshop of a meticulous artisan; and an alley where a young cyclist is learning to ride. With her restrained approach, the filmmaker hints little by little at a seemingly inevitable transformation, while the relentless onset of gentrification threatens the social fabric of a neighbourhood. After a critically acclaimed detour into audio documentary, Jenny Cartwright returns to the evocative force of images to evoke a rich and diverse community.
