What do we know about childhood other than the constructions we make of it? A little girl died inside the day her father left. As an adult, she is still there, frozen, stuck in the sand, ready to dissolve in the storm of her childhood. But is he really gone? Can memory lie to us? A film where characters from the past are transformed into actors in the present. A cinematic essay, based on images that the filmmaker has filmed over the years and family archives dating from the 1940s, all shot in the same place, on the same beach in Old Orchard, Maine, USA.

In 1850, on the isolated French island of Saint-Pierre, a murder shocks the natives. Two fishermen are arrested. One of them, Louis Ollivier, dies in custody. The other, Neel Auguste, is sentenced to death by the guillotine. The island is so small that it has neither a guillotine nor an executioner. While those are sent for Auguste is placed under the supervision of an army Captain.

On the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, six people become suspicious about a stranger in their neighborhood.

The mysterious disappearance of a man affects the lives of four different people, all living in loneliness in the suburbs of Quebec: the wife of the missing person, an aging ex-gambler, a young receptionist who want to share her life with somebody, and a father looking to help his family.

The passage of time is probably the only concrete proof we have that justice exists in this cruel world. Some people would like to stop time in its tracks, while others choose to follow its path. In this story, three men in their early thirties have reached that age when it's time to start thinking about "getting a life", perhaps starting a family. But how do you handle the fact that your friendships are changing? That, slowly, your new family is becoming the center of your ever-shrinking world? What do you do when you realize your youth is a thing of the past?

It has kidnapped Roxane Labelle, a Canadian singer covered gold records and awards. To his captors, no question of release without payment of a large ransom. Father and manager of the star, Paul Labelle asks a small accountant do it. Easier said than done, especially the payer also has a large sum to the Mafia and, rapidly, what Québec account scoundrels, thieves and killers are chasing the fabulous bonanza.

It’s 1922 in the Quebec countryside, and Claudine Perreault has big plans for her son, François. He’ll enter the priesthood so that God will forgive her for bearing a child out of wedlock. But 17-year-old François is dead set against joining the seminary. Enraged, Claudine strikes him so violently he goes deaf. After his mother’s death, François begins a different kind of relationship with a woman when he buys the wild and aloof young Amica from an Innu peddler.

Like many happy people, Bruno Hamel is leading an uneventful life until one afternoon, when his daughter is raped and murdered. When the murderer is arrested, a terrible project germinates in Bruno's darkened mind. He plans to capture the "monster" and make him pay for his crime.

Coming from the countryside to visit a friend, Solange 75, rediscovers Montreal. She talks to everyone with confidence and does some portraits of the people she meets. She meets Tom, a younger, moody and disillusioned man. Fictional scenes are interwoven with documentary scenes: portraits of Montrealers and snatches of conversations taken from life.

With a meticulous selection of interviews, performances and photos drawn from a vast and rich archival collection, Pauline Julien, Intimate and Political follows the iconic Quebec singer and eternally free spirit on a journey through key moments in the province’s history.