mappope productions
About our Films
Up and Down The City Road - 2008
Up and Down the City Road is a tribute to the Boulevard St-Laurent of old, which, in Pope’s hypothesis, died along with two of its habitués, sculptor Stanley Lewis and animator/raconteur Ryan Larkin. An animated documentary assembled in a rough-hewn manner, it’s formally odd but sentimentally evocative. MALCOLM FRASER. Mirror. 2008.
The Berson Boys - 2006-07
Moving to the Tomb Stone engravers, Berson Monuments, the oldest business still in existence
on the Main, we meet Tony, Harry and Serge, The Berson Boys who have worked for a combined
85 years.
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Birth of The Smoked Meat - 2005-06
Briefly introduced in Where’s Stanley, we venture more in depth into a day in the life of the staff making the Montreal delicacy of smoked meat. From the delivery of the meat to its back doors, to its arrival on the plate of Stanley Lewis, the process of making smoked meat is revealed.
Where’s Stanley - 2004
We begin our story with Stanley Lewis, the Montreal sculptor, the bastion of the Main, the art world and marginality. We follow him around the Main to his favourite eating houses then to his studio where we have a glimpse into his intimate world of creation.
The Trilogy — History of the Main
The Boulevard St Laurent, or “The Main,” has changed in countless ways since the 19th Century. The small Jewish hub that lies between Napoleon and Bagg Street is all but gone. As filmmakers we have spent the past few years up and down this segment of the Main, realizing as we documented, that we have been witness to the last days of these Jewish haunts.
All that is left now is Swartchz Smoked Meat, The Main Deli Steak House, the synagogue and Berson Monuments. Only time will tell if these businesses will survive developers. Berson Boys, a film on Berson Monuments, the Jewish tombstone engravers - which is in Post Production - needs repair work to be done, and like Shimca’s, Warshaws and the St. Laurent Bakery may fall under the ever changing clime of the Main – renovation.
Regardless of its diminished size, Jewish families still saunter the road at weekends reliving their roots and to eat an infamous Smoked meat sandwich.
The three films already produced form part of a whole, or can be seen independently from each other.