02 Dec FOCUS-DOCU #2: The ethics of looking
2
Dec
FOCUS-DOCU #2: The ethics of looking
Meetup - Documentary Cinema - Fall 2025
Tuesday December 2, 2025
6 pm - 8 pm
Main Film Atelier
2025 Rue Parthenais #304-A, Montréal, Quebec, H2K 3T2
Guests | Khoa Lê (Ma Sài Gòn), Lamia Chraibi (Circo), and Léa Clermont-Dion (La peur au ventre)
More guests to be announced soon!
Free upon registration
As part of its documentary series, Main Film presents FOCUS-DOCU: a series of meetings taking place on the first Thursday of every month this fall! These panels will focus on the multiple potentials and challenges of documentary cinema today.
Looking is in itself a political act. This round table discussion will examine the ethical responsibility of documentary filmmakers: filming trauma, entering into intimate spaces, negotiating consent, etc. How can we avoid reifying or exoticizing the subjects we film? This conversation will bring together filmmakers and programmers to explore a more conscious approach to documentary filmmaking.
For more information, please send an email to: services@mainfilm.qc.ca
Khoa Lê is a filmmaker, director, video designer, and author of feature films, documentaries, essays, video installations, music videos, magazines, and commercials. Through his artistic creations, he seeks to blur the boundaries between the sacred, the mundane, the real, and the imaginary. His quest for artistic freedom and his desire to expose creative gestures drive him to transcend formal boundaries.
Ma Sài Gòn (2023): Ma Sài Gòn questions the place of documentary filmmaking in the private lives of marginalized communities, avoiding exoticization and adopting a respectful and participatory stance. It raises questions about the ethical representation of queer identity in a complex cultural context.
Sarah Seené is a Montreal-based photographer and filmmaker whose analog photography work reflects a feminist and anti-validist approach. Through a poetic aesthetic, she explores themes related to chronic pain, mental health, and disability.
Her work has been presented at numerous festivals and exhibitions in Quebec and internationally. Her award-winning short films include Orbites (2025), which won an award at the REGARD festival, and Lumen, which has been acclaimed at various international festivals. She also collaborates with artists from the Quebec music scene.
Orbites (2025) : Because she lost her sight a few years ago, Marie-Christine explores life in a sensitive way, through the tips of her fingers. Through her personal experience, she awakens her son’s curiosity and wonder at the beauty of the universe. Bringing together a constellation of textured analog images and a bouquet of caressing soundscapes, Orbites embodies a dive into Marie-Christine’s sensory memory and reflects on the fundamental aspects of love and transmission.
Laurence Turcotte-Fraser is a Montreal-based filmmaker and cinematographer who combines a documentary eye with a fictional sensibility. President of Fraser Films Inc., she has directed two acclaimed feature-length documentaries: The End of Wonderland (2021 – IDFA, RIDM, BFI Flare) and Ma cité évincée (2023 – Jean-Marc-Vallée Award, cited at the National Assembly).
A sought-after cinematographer, she has notably worked on 004Angel (Regard 2025) and Dorchester, au cœur de la mêlée (CBC/Radio-Canada). Her dual practice feeds into a distinctive visual approach rooted in direct cinema.
With Le petit CHAOS (co-directed with Émilie L. Côté), she returns to short fiction, exploring contemporary anxiety with a distinctly Quebecois darkness. Laurence is currently developing several projects that continue her quest for human truth, whether intimate or political.
Ma Cité Évincée (2023) : As Quebec experiences an unprecedented housing crisis, “Ma cité évincée” gives a voice to those who are feeling the effects of real estate speculation in Montreal, one of the last affordable major cities in North America. But for how much longer?