Michka Saäl

Zero Tolerance

Michka Saäl

Being young is tough, especially if you're Black, Latino, Arab or Asian. In a city like Montreal, you can get targeted and treated as a criminal for no good reason. Zero Tolerance reveals how deep seated prejudice can be. On one side are the city's young people, and on the other, its police force. Two worlds, two visions. Yet one of these groups is a minority, while the other wields real power. One has no voice, while the other makes life-and-death decisions.

La position de l'escargot

Michka Saäl

Mirella Tomassini, Victor Lanoux

Tunisian-born Myriam, a Sephardic beauty, lives in Montreal. Théo, her grad-student boyfriend, breaks up with her, and she's desolate. She house-sits for a friend for several weeks: during that time, her father arrives looking for her after 20 years, Théo realizes he misses her, and she meets the quirky Lou, a poetry-spouting squatter who introduces himself by clipping a lock of her hair during a movie; he later breaks into her flat to chat with her. She's angry with her father, confused by Théo, and delighted with Lou, whose free spirit and undemanding attention inspire her. Working out her feelings about her father gives her to key to decide what to do next.

A Great Day in Paris

Michka Saäl

Within the jazz milieu of Paris, a story of music and friendship that revolves around questions of artistic exile, and begins and ends with a photograph.

Loin d'où

Michka Saäl

The cold, the snow, winter in black and white, all to reinforce missing the warmth, colours and scents of Tunisia.

Spoon

Michka Saäl

A dialogue is born in a prison between Spoon, an African American poet imprisoned for life, and me. After eight years of conversation, Spoon’s words console me, while my ear is a channel for him to the outside world. The film takes as a starting point the desire to measure the power of language, both his poetry and his activist prose, and to share notions of time.

Les Aventuriers

Michka Saäl

In this posthumous film, shot in Montreal in 2013 and completed by Michka Saäl’s colleagues and friends, the filmmaker salutes the beauty of Montreal and its people. From the back alleys of the Plateau to artists’ apartments, from a passionate recycling advocate to a queen of the night, everyday heroes are the subject of this final film. They are humble folk, faithful to their personal ethical sense, determined to make the world more beautiful. They are true adventurers, especially as seen by Michka Saäl.