After the Montreal Massacre

December 6, 1989. Sylvie Gagnon was attending her last day of classes at Ecole Polytechnique, an engineering school in Montreal, when Marc Lepine entered the building. Systematically separating the women from the men, he opened fire on women students, yelling "you're all a bunch of feminists." Sylvie survived a bullet wound to the head while fourteen other women were murdered.

After the Montreal Massacre is a useful tool for helping us come to terms with these murders and how they relate to the larger picture of male violence against women. Women throughout Canada and the world are expressing a growing concern about the widespread violence and mounting fear in their daily lives. The haunting images taken on the day of the massacre and in the days following, set the stage for an exploration of the urgent issues of misogyny, male violence and sexism.

Testimony from Sylvie Gagnon about what the massacre means to her, conversations with a group of college students, and interviews with noted writers, feminist activists, and leaders of organizations for women, contribute to this moving and important documentary which provides a challenge for change in our political, social and personal lives.