Street photography

An intimate glimpse into the life and legacy of an acclaimed street photographer.

A soft and merry gaze atop a broad smile: the first thing that strikes one about Harold Feinstein (1931-2015) is his cheerfulness. His love for life is as contagious as his images, which imprint themselves forever in the mind. For sixty years, the American photographer captured the humanity around him in shots that are at once tender, whimsical, and elegant.

Unveiling the art and life lessons of a photography legend.

This film will introduce you to an unknown New York, in vivid colours and abstractions, in the manner of the painter Saul Leiter, a free and nuanced spirit.

Behind the windowpane, through the condensation, beyond the raindrops, he redraws a city and the souls that live in it. He also comes to plunge us into “pleasant confusion” and “tickle our left ear"!

A humanist photographer, a chronicler of his times.

As colourful as its protagonist, this documentary, in which eyewitness accounts mingle with mise-en-scène, offers us an intimate portrait of Gabor Szilasi. The Hungarian-born photographer, now approaching his hundredth birthday, has devoted most of his life to immortalising everyday life in Quebec, his home since 1957.

The transformative power of photography in life's chapters.

Before crisscrossing the American territory, Robert Frank trained his lens on the city: Paris, London, New York, characters in their own right. The city as a starting point for every trip, where inspiration is born in the daily struggle against urban adversity.

He evokes those great periods when the city would compose with him, where by moving a few steps he would find a new face each time.

Johannesburg through two distinct photographic lenses.

This film will take you to the chaotic heart of Johannesburg. You will enter its large abandoned buildings, through the eyes of Guy Tillim, who has shared the daily lives of all who live there.

You will also cross it at night, and witness the lives of the street vendors that Thandile Zwelibanzi has chosen to observe and document.

A city immortalized through the eyes of a master photographer.

Known as “The Eye of Istanbul”. For forty years, Turkish photographer of Armenian origin Ara Güler (1928-2018) immortalized the city, from the smallest details of daily life to the events that have marked its history, with the spontaneity so dear to the man who insists that photography should never be staged. Ara Güler could wait for hours for the decisive moment to appear in his viewfinder. A patience that went hand in hand with a strong character, as this documentary by director Samuel Aubin reveals with a touch of tenderness. 

Capturing the essence of everyday life through Plossu's lens.

Another way to survey and photograph the city, according to Bernard Plossu, is non-stop walking! With a cheap camera to hand, you're ready for instinctive, unscripted photography.

Captured by the photographer in black and white, snapshots of the Paris of the 1970s and the 1990s inspired by a glance, a thrown ball, a stain on the asphalt, a passer-by.

Six photographers, six ways of exploring Montreal and revealing what its streets have to offer.

Through six photographers working in Montreal, the documentary looks closely at the everyday practice of street photography: walking, anticipating, choosing equipment, reacting to chance and deciding when to press the shutter.

Gilbert Duclos’s fight to preserve the freedom to photograph the street.

What does it mean to photograph freely in public space? Through the question of image rights and the limits placed on photographers, the documentary examines the legal and ethical conditions that shape street photography itself.