The Free Ones

The Free Ones
FrenchLes Libres
Directed byNicolas Lévesque
Written byNicolas Lévesque
Produced byJean-Philippe Archibald
CinematographyJean-Philippe Archibald
Edited byNatacha Dufaux
Release date
  • November 12, 2020 (2020-11-12) (RIDM)
Running time
94 minutes
CountryCanada
LanguageFrench

The Free Ones (French: Les Libres) is a Canadian documentary film, directed by Nicolas Lévesque and released in 2020. An expansion of his 2015 short film Interview with a Free Man (Entrevue avec un homme libre),[1] which was named by the Toronto International Film Festival as one of the Canada's Top Ten short films in 2015.[2] The film is a portrait of several ex-convicts who are readjusting to life as free men with jobs at a sawmill in Roberval, Quebec.[3]

The film premiered at the 2020 Montreal International Documentary Festival.[4]

The film received two Canadian Screen Award nominations at the 9th Canadian Screen Awards, for Best Cinematography in a Documentary (Jean-Philippe Archibald) and Best Editing in a Documentary (Natacha Dufaux).[5]

  1. ^ François Lévesque, "«Les libres»: réapprendre le dehors". Le Devoir, February 12, 2021.
  2. ^ Bruce Kirkland, "TIFF announces its top 10 films of 2015". Toronto Sun, December 8, 2015.
  3. ^ André Duchesne, "Les libres : refaire sa vie, une planche à la fois". La Presse, February 12, 2021.
  4. ^ "This week at Montreal documentary film festival RIDM". Cult MTL, November 13, 2020.
  5. ^ Brent Furdyk, "Canadian Screen Awards Announces 2021 Film Nominations". ET Canada, March 30, 2021.