Documentary
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Mathilde Capone, member of a legendary queer shared accommodation in the south of Montreal, films the last days of this haven of the margins, evicted under the pressure of gentrification.
Gender and gentrification, just in case, do not confuse. There is the radical queer tribe and its utopia of life outside the norm, and there is the “gentry” who are gaining ground by chasing the first one out of the neighborhood. Or the community living in shared accommodation in this dedicated place, the mythical “Parthenais”, in the south of Montreal, filmed by one of them, Mathilde Capone, shortly before being evicted by stockbrokers banking on the Airbnb trend to make renovated (old) walls profitable. Parthenais, a mecca for LGBT+ activism for fifteen years (and having replaced an anarchist community, recalls one of the tenants with irony), with memorable techno parties, experiences from the margins (and everyone works to pay the rent, elsewhere in town) : for example the testosterone treatment for the transition of a young artist who observes the evolution of his sex, molding his hatching clitoris into a penis month after month. Capone, small camera or smartphone in hand, films the last days of this welcoming and friendly triplex, this shelter for the fragile, a broke place and den of culture underground, before disappearance – some, to support the joke, use the portmanteau word: “renoviction”. It’s moving.
Eviction briefly collects fluorescent snapshots of parties, the dinners, the casual remarks, the political considerations, drink in hand, under a red tent where a large bowl of sangria of the same color sits, of those who have passed
