“How many major cities around the world can boast of having a woman, a care giver as their founder?” Annabel Loyola

Featuring activists who connect with vulnerable people in need of affordable housing and food, this film reveals my beloved neighbourhood’s ongoing struggle for community. Jeanne Mance’s utopian project gave birth to Montreal. Now, our human connections cry out for care. 

This poetic, personal film will honour citizens engaged in sustaining solidarity in my neighbourhood which carries the name and utopian project of the caregiver woman who co-founded Montreal on the site of Tiohtià:ke/Mooniyang. From Milton-Parc to Santropol roulant, through la Cité-des-Hospitalières and Café Santropol, we get close to strong characters in action in the streets, kitchens and gardens. We pay tribute to earlier activists, including Hospital nuns, whose actions saved neighbourhoods. Rich archives tell the story of the Milton-Parc 70s rebellion when residents stood up to bulldozers and created 1,300 units of coop housing. Today, the existential threat to Indigenous folk living and dying on the street is criminal drug dealers. Resistance is borne by social mediation workers like Coco known to vulnerable street folk and to establishments where they are welcome to stop by. One such place is le Santropol roulant which is as close as you get to utopia. Pier, its director, reveals the secret to this “expressive” social organisation. Chris and his British Bulldog, Meatball, deliver meals by motorized wheelchair. The campaign to save Chez Gauthier for inclusive housing is visible with Sophia’s colourful “yarn-bombing” of the fence around its abandoned lot. In a broken-down plumbing store at Saint-Urbain/Duluth, Garth created an urban oasis, in 1974: “I thought if I opened a Café, the bulldozers would stay away.” For 50 years, the Café Santropol and its enchanting garden has been a Montreal landmark full of stories. Will it survive? In the face of uncertainty, artistic defiance comes through the cracks in the sidewalk on Duluth where Patrick Watson agrees to perform on the public piano. A lively soundscape will offer VO “musings” on such themes as community, marginality, utopia and caring.

Margaux Ouimet

© Abejas Productions, 2026