In Hope and Indignation

Starting May 29th, 2026, Cinéma Public presents In Hope and Indignation, a film series curated and presented by Anaïs Barbeau-Lavalette.

For years now, I have been meticulously examining the cinematic reflection of our troubled times.

How can we tackle the climate crisis without descending into utter gloom or bland moralising?

A few films have brilliantly managed to remain firmly rooted in current environmental issues, while staying unique, powerful and uplifting.

That is what we need. Films that do not provide answers where there are none, but which activate our inner levers. Films that remind us of that ‘indelegable self’: that part within each of us, fragile and essential, which cannot be placed upon the shoulders or in the hearts of others. It is this ‘indelegable’ part that makes each person’s uprising unique and irreplaceable. “No one,” writes Thoreau, “can be me in my place.” It is from this point that we act, that we speak out, that we disobey. It is also from this unique self that we make films.

I still believe in the power of art to shake up and advance minds and the actions connected to them.

And I embrace Frederic Gros’s radical lucidity when he writes that “to be an intellectual, an artist, a writer, but perhaps more fundamentally to take one’s destiny as a ‘human being’ seriously, means committing oneself to engagement, even to struggle, to taking a stand. For neutrality is a choice: the choice of passive complicity.”

Through this programme, I therefore invite us all to discover brilliant, essential and inspiring voices, so that we may once again become partners in hope and indignation.

—Anaïs Barbeau-Lavalette

This project was made possible thanks to the support of the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec and the Conseil des arts de Montréal.