Mr. Speaker, the successive governments in the House have had difficulty recognizing the existence of a Quebec cinema. When a minister manages to say the words Quebec cinema at all, he speaks as if it were a sub-genre of Canadian francophone cinema in general.
I would like to invite the hon. members, therefore, to the Rendez-vous du cinéma québécois, which will be held February 14 to 28. They will see how right we are to say that through its feature and short films, its documentaries and its animated films, our cinema is the reflection of our culture. They will discover that although Quebec cinema is mainly francophone, it can be anglophone and aboriginal as well. The films shown this year were selected from a record number of 550 and are very representative of the filmmakers in our movie industry, who do not sit around waiting to be recognized by some Canadian government.
For 26 years, the Rendez-vous du cinéma québécois has lent expression to life in Quebec and Quebec culture. Long live Quebec cinema.