Fiscal Sponsorship Campaign

Help Funam­bules Médias regain balance

A Project with Great Potential

For over 16 years, Funam­bules Médias has been run­ning Ciné­ma sous les étoiles, a unique event that offers between 40 and 60 free pub­lic screen­ings each sum­mer of both Que­bec and inter­na­tion­al doc­u­men­taries. Each year, near­ly 8,000 peo­ple gath­er in parks and pub­lic spaces across Mon­tre­al for these friend­ly and social­ly engaged screenings.

Ciné­ma sous les étoiles is more than just enter­tain­ment — it’s a meet­ing place for cin­e­ma, reflec­tion, and soci­ety. We build strong con­nec­tions with artists, fes­ti­vals, insti­tu­tions, as well as with com­mu­ni­ty and aca­d­e­m­ic circles.

Since 2022, with the launch of Ciné­ma à la carte, our annu­al pro­gram­ming has expand­ed to over 150 screen­ings in the­aters, film clubs, schools, and with­in mar­gin­al­ized and com­mu­ni­ty-based spaces.

Our mis­sion is clear: to pro­mote access to doc­u­men­tary films, crit­i­cal think­ing, and social togetherness.

A Project in Difficulty :

For the past two years, Funam­bules Médias has been fac­ing the loss of major part­ners, result­ing in a bud­get short­fall of sev­er­al tens of thou­sands of dol­lars — all in a con­text where pro­duc­tion costs are sky­rock­et­ing. Over the past five years, the price of equip­ment, insur­ance, trans­porta­tion, stor­age, and more has con­tin­ued to rise, while pub­lic fund­ing has failed to keep up.

We are grate­ful for the efforts of loy­al part­ners such as the Con­seil des arts et des let­tres du Québec (CALQ), who have pro­vid­ed invalu­able finan­cial sup­port. But in the cur­rent cli­mate, it’s sim­ply not enough.

To pre­serve our team’s bal­ance, we’ve had to hire more peo­ple and improve work­ing con­di­tions in order to pre­vent burnout and dis­trib­ute tasks more fair­ly. But that comes at a cost. Orga­niz­ing a two-month-long fes­ti­val with so many screen­ings and free activ­i­ties requires heavy, con­stant logis­tics and a skilled work­force. With­out a sta­ble, per­ma­nent team, each edi­tion becomes a puz­zle we have to rein­vent — at the expense of our effi­cien­cy and long-term vision.

The Social Impact of Funam­bules Médias :

In a world sat­u­rat­ed with images, we believe more than ever in the pow­er of doc­u­men­tary cin­e­ma to raise aware­ness, cre­ate con­nec­tions, and spark essen­tial con­ver­sa­tions. With Ciné­ma sous les étoiles — the largest out­door doc­u­men­tary screen­ing fes­ti­val in Cana­da — Funam­bules Médias offers an engaged, acces­si­ble, and free sum­mer pro­gram in parks across Mon­tre­al and beyond.

For the past 15 years, we’ve sup­port­ed emerg­ing film­mak­ers, high­light­ed the work of Que­bec and inter­na­tion­al doc­u­men­tar­i­ans, and built bridges between artists, cit­i­zens, researchers, NGOs, and activists. Our screen­ings are warm and wel­com­ing — spaces for dia­logue, reflec­tion, and some­times even… a pic­nic or a spark of romance!

Root­ed in Montreal’s doc­u­men­tary ecosys­tem, our work — though often behind the scenes — helps sus­tain a cul­ture of close­ness and com­mu­ni­ty, beyond par­ti­san lines, in a Que­bec marked by deep social and demo­c­ra­t­ic tensions.