The Benevolents (2021)

Original title

Les bienveillants

Directed by

Sarah Baril Gaudet

Genre

documentary

Country

Canada

Runtime

16 min

Rated

G

Rating

7.0 of 10 from 2 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A short documentary follows people training to volunteer for a crisis hotline in Montreal. It looks at what drives them to help strangers and explores the loneliness that brings callers to the phone.

observationalintimategentlecontemplativepoignantunderstatedhumanizingquiet

What happens

The Benevolents (French: Les Bienveillants) is a Canadian short documentary film, directed by Sarah Baril Gaudet and released in 2021. An exploration of contemporary loneliness and the importance of human social connection, the film is a portrait of various people who are training to become volunteers for Tel-Aide, a crisis hotline in Montreal, Quebec. The film premiered at the 2021 Festival international du cinéma francophone en Acadie. It was subsequently distributed principally through Op-Docs, The New York Times's streaming platform for documentaries. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

More like this

• Who Loves the Sun (2024)
• Solitudes (2025)
• CHSLD (2020)
• The Heart That Beats (2011)
• After the Sirens
• The Best Way is by Accident
• Sometimes I Wish I Was on a Desert Island (2020)
• You Are Warm, You Are Warm (1973)