Esquisses géographiques des récits cinématographiques Canadiens contemporains

Films carry an original geographic discourse. Beyond the vision of an author, they often reflect a society's perspective on territories. The goal of this research is to study the geographic discourse developed by Canadian cinema through an analysis of the places structuring Canadian cinematographic narratives. This analysis is based on the systematic study of a selection of 46 contemporary Canadian films. These films have been transformed into a database of 2200 places using an original geographic reading grid. Analysis of these places identifies the existence of territories under‐ and over‐represented by Canadian cinema, as well as territories of consensus and divergence that exist between different categories of Canadian cinema such as Quebecois, anglophone, and hybrid. Some interesting results include the general lack of interest in the southern hemisphere—notably Latin America—as well as in the Nordic territories (outside of First Nations cinema). It is also interesting to note the quasi‐absence of Vancouver on the screen, while Toronto and the United States appear recurrently. But the most striking result is probably the profound divergence in the way Canadian cinema treats the province of Quebec in general, and the city of Montreal in particular. Montreal is indeed the perfect example of a space of divergence: the city is heavily represented in Quebecois films, but completely ignored in the rest of Canadian cinematographic production. This deep opposition illustrates the importance of downtown Montreal as a symbolic space of Quebec national identity.