À contre-mode

After many days of planning, filming, and editing, director Hélène Lebon and producer Louise Lalonde’s documentary À contre-mode is now available to stream online at tv5unis.ca after airing on the UnisTV network on January 22. 

Three young students, Joelle Blanchar, Milia Kebbi, and Lucas Calhoon take on the challenge of organizing a fashion show using only second-hand clothing for their peers.   The film reframes fashion as a social and political phenomenon, addressing urgent issues of pollution, economics, and human rights, while highlighting the power of collective action and community mobilization. 

Produced on Prince Edward Island, À contre-mode is the first French-language, 48-minute television documentary made on the Island in nearly seven years—a milestone that underscores both the challenges and the importance of documentary production in minority-language regions. In such settings, access to funding, character-driven storytelling, and distribution remain fragile. 

À contre-mode affirms the role of documentary as a tool for memory, dialogue, and change—particularly in minority contexts, where telling one’s own story is an act of cultural resilience.

Continued investment from broadcasters in locally produced documentaries is essential—not only to sustain creative ecosystems, but to build the Acadian and francophone audiovisual archives of tomorrow, rooted in community voices and lived experience.

Community screenings of an English-subtitled version are in the planning phase and will soon be announced.