MARIE
GUYART-MARTIN
 Denis
Boivin
 Short Presentation
 Short
Synopsis
 Complete
Synopsis
 Director's
Intent
 Screenplay
 Collaborators
Characters
 Dionysos
Historical References
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 HISTORICAL REFERENCES
[References] - [First
Nations] - [Autobiography of Marie Guyart]
Summary of the main historical stages which
define the screenplay.
Marie Guyart is born in France in 1599, at the end of the Hundred Years War. She will
see the young Louis XIII at the time of his sojourn in Tours, region considered to be the
garden of the kings. It is in this heavenly setting that the young Marie gets married
while still nurturing her dreams.
Quebec has been founded since 1608, but has been in the hands of the English, the Kirke
brothers, for several years. The French retake the territory in about 1633, three years
after Marie has pronounced her religious vows.
She is the first woman missionnary to arrive in the New World, in 1639, accompanied by
Mme de la Peltrie, a representative of the Cent Associés. This rich
adventuress marries the king’s treasurer of France at Caen in order to bring her
paternal fortune to Canada. The king assigns commercial and trading rights to this company
on the condition that they establish a city as a viable and feasible organization, which,
therefore, required a school and a hospital; hence the arrival of the Ursulines, the
teachers, and the Hospitalières, the nurses, on the same voyage. Mme de la Peltrie
invests much money, but subsequently profits from the fur trade and commercial ventures in
the territories. Evidently, the peoples already present, the natives, are not in
agreement : there is war.
Despite all, during the 30 years since the arrival of Marie Guyart, life for people was
based on a neighborly system of helping one another, rather than a system of family
support. The heartbeat of the country was this large brotherhood. Many people had left
France to live this new hope. Marie Guyart compares the atmosphere of Canada’s
founding to the spirit of a primitive church.
Peace having been assured again, the company finally begins after twenty years to get
back on its feet and start seeing profits from its investments. History concludes that
Colbert, minister and advisor to the young sun king, Louis XIV, perceiving that there is a
fortune to be picked in this territory, analyzes everything and proposes, in 1662, the
bankruptcy of the Cent Associés to allow the king to regain possession of the
territory.
Between 1663 et 1665, the dream of Marie is shattered by the establishment of the
Régime Royal; the nightmare carried on in the name of Nouvelle France.
Note on the Relations des Jésuites
Everyone knows the historical importance of the Relations des Jésuites. Our
story will point out that these publications were very popular in their time.
Studies in communication present the Relations des Jésuites as "the first
newspapers", in the sense they were published periodically and regularly and that
information was conveyed in a documentary manner. The people of France were infatuated
with this bi-annual reading of news from the New World.
The Relations des Jésuites has become, therefore, a presence to be weighed for
our story to evolve, because it is proven that Marie Guyart, even if cloistered, was one
of the most popular women in France at the time, a media star before her time.
The Natives
Even since the arrival of Marie Guyart, the Montagnais (INNUS) had
lived in Quebec. This territory was the trading place of the gathered Nations.
Geographically, the river narrowed there; from which came the name : kebec (Québec).
Marie and her companies learned three different native languages : Innu, (the Montagnais),
Algonquin, and Wendat. The Wendats, as we discover in our film, have been called
" Hurons " for a long time because of the " hure "
which caracterized their hairstyle. Their near relatives, the
" Iroquois " carry also the " hure ". Historians
have often confused them. The Iroquois family is the warring branch (Warrior-Mohawk). Our
heroine knew a dozen native Nations but for our dramatic needs, we limit them to four: the
Montagnais, the Algonquins, the Iroquois, and the Wendats. Conforming to historical facts,
the Montagnais leave for the North, little by little, after the arrival of the French. The
Algonquins do not stay in Québec, except in passing. The remaining Iroquois, who were not
imprisoned, gathered more to the south, which would be the future American territory. The
Wendats stay under the protection of the French, where they will be assimilated, at least
into the French language, in the course of the three centuries which follow. It is their
descendants who introduce our story on film.
Historical Fact
The French of the time never had the intention of conquering the Indians with weapons.
There has been, therefore, no genocide in the history of New France, contrary to New Spain
or the United States. The objective of the French was to trade with the natives and to
evangelize, thinking to save souls. The relations were, in general, harmonious; it was
common to encounter groups of Native- Americans in the streets of cities and villages.
However, many ancestral costumes of these first nations will lose their importance, and
some foreign diseases, such as small pox, will decimate the population. We estimate that
the two Americas, before the arrival of Europeans, had about 100 million inhabitants, 35
million in Mexico alone. Several decades after the arrival of the Europeans, less than 10
million remained. Inside the territory which is now Canada, there were around two million
Native-Americans, speaking 52 different languages. It is estimated that today there are
72,430 natives in Quebec, and about 15,000 Native-Americans lacking official status
"sans statut".
A more complete historical account is found on the page titled " First Nations ".
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