Dominic Dorval

Anxiety is the most common mental health problem in North America. Panic attacks, discomfort, ruminations, isolation: anxiety prevents those who suffer from it from living their lives to the full and plunges them into sometimes insurmountable distress. Is there more anxiety than ever before? How do we get out of this?

15 to 20% of young Quebecers suffer from anxiety disorders. It is THE mental health problem of a whole generation.

Using the mother’s life and constant flight as the main thread, the film shows us a deeply religious, Jewish girl, born in the Ukraine in 1902, who died an atheist and communist in Copenhagen in 1985.

At birth, every parent expects the famous announcement: “It’s a girl!” or “It’s a boy!”. And if, instead, the doctors declared :”We don’t know“? Through the history of Gabriel, Sophie, Justin and their families, we discover the taboo of intersexuality, formerly called”hermaphrodite”.

Carole Laganière dives deeply into personal territory in this beautifully crafted exploration of absence and loss and its painful effect on daily lives. Inspired by her mother’s steadily advancing Alzheimer’s and the inevitability of her estrangement, Laganière weaves their story with the stories of others wrestling with loss: Ines, an immigrant who returns to her birth country of Croatia to find the mother who abandoned her during the war; Deni, an American author who’s finally able to search for his Quebec roots; and Nathalie, who’s desperately looking for her missing sister. Through their experiences the film ponders how absence is often the catalyst for a quest—a quest for information, understanding and often acceptance. Through its many voices, Absences speaks to us of the immense fragility and resiliency of human emotions.

Carole Laganière dives deeply into personal territory in this beautifully crafted exploration of absence and loss and its painful effect on daily lives. Inspired by her mother’s steadily advancing Alzheimer’s and the inevitability of her estrangement, Laganière weaves their story with the stories of others wrestling with loss: Ines, an immigrant who returns to her birth country of Croatia to find the mother who abandoned her during the war; Deni, an American author who’s finally able to search for his Quebec roots; and Nathalie, who’s desperately looking for her missing sister. Through their experiences the film ponders how absence is often the catalyst for a quest—a quest for information, understanding and often acceptance. Through its many voices, Absences speaks to us of the immense fragility and resiliency of human emotions.