Black October

Format: NTSC

Release Date: 21-06-2004

Details: Writer/director Terence McKenna has crafted a riveting two-hour documentary that chillingly recounts one of the most explosive periods in Canadian history. On October 5, 1970, British Trade Commissioner James Cross was kidnapped by a sect of the FLQ. Five days later, Quebec Vice-Premier and Minister of Labour Pierre Laporte was also kidnapped, and Canada was thrown into its worst peacetime political crisis. Using dramatic re-creations, archival black and white film, news reports and interviews, Black October brings into focus the contradictions, misapprehensions and strengths of the decision-makers of the day. Reenactments show, in vivid terms, how the Cross and Laporte kidnappings were planned and executed. Actors read the words of the FLQ members responsible for the kidnappings and the murder of Laporte. Interviews include former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, his then P