Last winter, the Sundance Film Festival feted the splendor of documentary, as many critics in Park City, Utah, cheered non-fiction films more boisterously than drama. In the last flash of summer, the doc bowed before another major ovation as Catherine Annau’s Just Watch Me: Trudeau and the ’70s Generation snagged honors for best first feature film at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Just Watch Me, a title reprising what is likely the most memorable rejoinder made by former Canadian prime minister Pierre Trudeau, articulates how young adults felt about Trudeau’s vision for a bilingual, multicultural Canada and how his will distilled and reshaped their points of view during his 15 years in power. A National Film Board production shot in English and in French, producers are Gerry Flahive and Yves Bisaillon.

‘I think the film is about me, largely,’ says Annau. ‘I was born in ’65 and I grew up in Ontario where learning French was about saving the country. We didn’t learn French because it was cool. We learned French because Trudeau told us we were going to right the historic wrongs of anti-French sentiment.’

Annau, whose love of French eventually encouraged her to move to Montreal, found herself tiring of the incessant talk of a referendum on Quebec separation. ‘I went to the ’95 rally’ – a sizable Montreal event organized by anglophones to encourage Quebecers to vote down a referendum asking if Quebec should separate from Canada. ‘I was shocked to see a growing intolerance [between French and English], shocked to see how people could be whipped up into a frenzy….In any society, once you unleash certain forces, the same thing can happen.’

The 75-minute doc intersperses archival footage, periodical shots, pop music of the era and dynamic editing with extensive recollections of a handful of people who felt themselves profoundly influenced by Trudeau.

Having returned from a cross-country screening tour, Annau will see her film air Feb. 17, 2000 as part of CBC Thursday. As Playback went to press, the nfb was awaiting a scheduling decision from Radio-Canada.