Daily News Friday, November 03, 2025

The Champions, directed by the late Donald Brittain, is a three-part series that uses photographs, newsreel footage and rare interviews to trace the careers of Ren� L�vesque and Pierre Trudeau. The series covers the time from the early 1950s to 1987, starting with their university years and following with the colourful decade that saw Trudeau win three federal elections; the 1970 October Crisis and the sweeping rise to power of the Parti Qu�b�cois; the turbulent events of the Quebec referendum; the repatriation of the Canadian Constitution and each man's fall from power.
Director Donald Brittain�polemicist, director, script writer and producer�wrote and directed over 100 films (which won some 85 Canadian and international film awards) during his career, including the first IMAX film presented at the Osaka Universal Exhibition in 1970, Bethune, as well as Ladies and Gentleman�Mr. Leonard Cohen and Volcano: An Inquiry into the Life and Death of Macolm Lowry.