You’ll recall in the post “Montréwood television”, I briefly spoke about Québec’s major television networks.  One of the television networks is Télé-Québec.   It is Québec’s provincial public broadcaster, and I feel it does an excellent job on producing various documentaries (a couple of the more recent, more popular documentaries it produced this year were on Lucien Bouchard and Brian Mulroney – both of which had incredible ratings in Québec).   It also carries Les franc-tireurs, one of Québec’s most popular television programs.

Unfortunately for many people across Canada, Télé-Québec is only available on standard television packages in Québec, Ontario and New Brunswick.

But fortunately for people across Canada, like Radio-Canada, Télé-Québec does an excellent job of archiving many of its programs for later viewing online.

Télé-Québec recently aired two documentaries which have been archived on their website for online viewing.

• “Rencontre avec Pauline Marois, Une femme, un destin” (“A meeting with Pauline Marois, A woman, A destiny”).   As you know, Pauline Marois was Québec’s former Premier. The documentary covers her thoughts after her April defeat, and it also contains footage as they accompanied her behind the scenes during her year as Premier.  I thought the documentary was done very well.   You can view it online here:   http://rencontreavecpaulinemarois.telequebec.tv/

• “La gloire… mais à quel prix?” (“Glory… but at what price?”) is a two-part documentary about the ambitions of two famous children of two famous personalities – and how being their children affected their ambitions.   The documentary is presented in an interview format.   The first part covers retired Formula-One racer, Jacques Villeneuve (son of the late F-1 racer Gilles Villeneuve).  The second part (starting at 27:00 minutes) is on Liberal leader Justin Trudeau (son of the late former Prime Minister, Pierre Trudeau).   You can view the documentary at http://documentaires.telequebec.tv/la-gloire-mais-a-quel-prix.

Télé-Québec’s archived material does not stay online forever, so see if you can catch these before Télé-Québec replaces them with something newer.

Unfortunately, subtitling is not available if you require it.   But, if you’re learning French, still give this a shot.  If you’re at a basic level, the documentaries are still a good way to train your ear (they’re narrated in very standard French).   Enjoy your weekend.