"The cannonade of fireworks which marked the opening of Expo...may in retrospect turn out to have been one of those rare moments that changed the direction of a nation's history...This is the greatest thing we have ever done as a nation and surely the modernization of Canada -- of its skylines, of its styles, its institutions -- will be dated from this occasion and from this fair...The more you see of it, the more you're overwhelmed by a feeling that if this is possible, that if this little sub-arctic, self-obsessed country of 20,000,000 people can put on this kind of show, then it can do almost anything." --
Syndicated journalist Peter C. Newman of the Toronto Star,
April 28, opening day at Expo 67.
In his haunting book, Terre des Hommes, Antoine de Saint-Exupery writes about how deeply moved he was, when flying for the first time by night alone over Argentina, he happened to notice a few flickering lights scattered below him across an almost empty plain; “So filled with dreams and hopes for the future they twinkled here and there, alone like the stars.” Moved as he was by a heightened awareness of the solitude of all creation and by the human need for solidarity, Saint Exupery found a phrase “Terre des Hommes” to express his anguish and his hope that was as simple as it was rich in meaning; and because that phrase was chosen many years later to be the governing idea of Expo 67, a collection of peoples from all walks of life to reflect upon it and to see how it could be given tangible form.
“To be a man is to be responsible, to feel that by placing one’s own stone,
one contributes to the building of the world.”
On one hand these are enlightened words. On the other hand, they are the words of a builder. No doubt it all adds up to the same thing. Throughout history people have believed strongly in a united effort towards a future goal; a collective of single stones all adding up to a world built - and built upon - in the name of accomplishment and legacy.
Doubtless, as he marches steadily onward, man has never been able to clearly see where his great, often hopeless, efforts will lead him. Now more than ever he seems to be frightening himself. What is Terre des Hommes now? It is an endless education, it is organized and structured leisure – as if the very idea of leisure should not automatically include permission to play truant! It is the “re-training” of adults, resolution-less discussions on all subjects, change for the sake of change, speech for the sake of speech and more and more a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.
What will become of us? Will we disappear with our cargo of suffering and aspirations? Like a shooting star we want to wish upon but never always quick enough to make our wish as the rules of the game require. All our innumerable dreams and endless plans, all the births and all the deaths, all the wars and all the efforts to protect us from wars – will all this disappear some day without leaving any more trace than other former worlds have left? Is the fight against this fate - a desperate and inexplicable need to leave a mark - the true journey towards Terre des Hommes? Maybe Terre des Hommes manifest’s itself each time we learn to put ourselves in the place of others.
The Documentary:
Terre des Hommes: The Themes
- Man the Creator
- Man the Producer
- Man the Explorer
- Man the Provider
- Man and his Health
- Man in the Community
So much has been written about Expo 67 in Montreal - the singular moment defining a nation, a city and a culture - that to recount the importance and impact of the actual event would be, perhaps at best, a lesser attempt at retelling the tale. Greater words have already been spoken by greater people. Forty years of history has been written since Expo 67 and the first generation, now adults, has come into its own since 1967- people between the ages of 30 and 40 years who were not yet born during what Pierre Burton referred to as “the last good year”. Slackers, Betweeners or X’ers - a generation most famous for being a generation. A generation far removed from the ideal and the promised legacy of Expo 67. Taking the themes mentioned, the objective of the documentary is to discuss with three generations - those who would have been adults during Expo 67 (many of whom who were involved with its fruition), their children – the boomers – and the generation born after Expo. While keeping the focus of the documentary of the post expo generation the goal is to utilize the themes of Expo 67 and to see what true legacy of the promise of that pivotal event.
The producers of the documentary would like to use any surviving Expo 67 buildings to conduct interviews and to create set pieces for brief segue portions of the documentary. This documentary, appropriating the idea of “Montreal plays Host to the World”, will have two central characters that are going to essentially play “hosts” of the film. These two hosts will conduct interviews and contribute dialogue to propel the central theme of the documentary forward. They will be seen walking through Parc Jean Drapeau and by means of digital effects, various images and recreations of Expo 67 buildings and landmarks will appear - the visual effects will serve as a rebuilding of Expo as an idea - an idea expressed earlier and the beginning of this synopsis.
The Art of Expo 67
Art played a key, if not fundamental, role at Expo 67, particularly sculpture. These pieces peppered the entire Expo site. Today, the remaining sculptures at the Expo site sit largely ignored, serving as decoration for the casino or a place to hide junk food wrappers during the Formula 1 race. The art, the physical manifest of Man the Creator and once considered so important to feeling of Expo, is now little more than embarrassing reminders of what many consider a naïve era. Antoine de Saint-Exupery embraced a future of hope and promise when he wrote Terre des Hommes; that seemingly insurmountable hurdles, such as fear, hatred and indifference, all fail in the light of a collective effort to each lay a stone and build a world – a world not for ourselves but a world for the people that follow. It is a noble idea, a truth that has proven as rewarding as it is boundless. Idealistically, it is a world where the best of a pervious generation is taken into good care and built upon by the next.
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It is a damp, mid-April afternoon on Ile Notre Dame; a man-made island that didn’t exist 40 years ago but still sits resolute and solid in the St Laurent - a mute but defiant reminder of outrageous ideas, optimism and accomplishment. My feet are wet because I have decided, rather unwisely, to wander off the gravel path in search of a more interesting subject matter to photograph. Trudging over icy snow patches and under some brush I end up in a small clearing that is buffeted on two sides by large rock formations. It is quiet, the kind of quiet that is only ever noticed by people who live with the perpetual din of the city. Suddenly the silence is broken by what sounds like a jackhammer. I walk through the brush and stop at a precipice overlooking a dry waterway. In front of me is the old Expo 67 Quebec pavilion and at its base there is a small group of men hammering away some old rotting concrete from the buildings foundation. I have seen photos of the old Quebec Pavilion and always liked how it seemed to hover above the water - a simple and understated building clad in blue glass - the colour of Quebec pride which once at night glowed and reflected in proud, reserved grace showing its promise of treasures and excitement inside. Now, as a part of Casino Montreal, it rests on its crumbling base above a dry and rocky waterway and has since been re-clad in non-transparent gold glass - the colour of money. It does not glow at night but rather keeps its bounty - and perhaps secrets - to itself. Today it shares nothing. I take a photo of it and turn to leave, but this time on the gravel path that I am supposed to walk.
Our documentary will examine the legacy of Expo 67.
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