The Lumberfros Trailer (2011)

There’s a new breed of lumberjacks in northern Quebec’s boreal forest. These latter-day Paul Bunyans hail from Eastern Europe, Africa and Asia, and work alongside veteran, Quebec-born brush cutters. The work is backbreaking, the saws heavy and noisy, the bugs plentiful, and the men are cut off from their families from the first days of spring until the creeks freeze over in late October. Mamadou, Antonie and Gérard talk naturally and spontaneously about their lives, while scenes of roughhousing among the men at the logging camp and in the bush capture their alternating exuberance, boredom and camaraderie over an entire season. Inspired by direct cinema pioneer Pierre Perrault, Stéphanie Lanthier brilliantly succeeds in capturing the changing nature of Quebec society and the poetic magic of the northern forest in all its beauty and danger.