A night in a bar like any other… Deftly capturing furtive glances, moments of euphoria and awkward situations, Serge Bordeleau blends tools borrowed from fiction filmmaking with documentary observation to construct a gallery of characters who provide undeniable proof that every night holds a myriad potential stories.

A night in a bar like any other… Young patrons drink, dance, check each other out and celebrate, until a brutal flash of fluorescent lighting silently signals that it’s time to head home—or find someplace to eat. Under director Serge Bordeleau’s gaze, this ordinary scene is transformed into a gently humanist fresco holding a myriad potential stories.

Astutely blending tools borrowed from fiction filmmaking with a keen sense of documentary observation, Bordeleau plays with the rules, manipulating reality to construct a gallery of unforgettable characters from a multitude of tiny details. A young man, followed by a fluidly moving camera recalling that of early Scorsese, becomes the de facto star of the bar. A somewhat shy young woman, alone on the dance floor, is shot from above, which accentuates her dismay. Through the magic of editing, a group of girls twirling around the aerial camera find themselves in the topic of conversation of a table of friends chatting as they drink their beers. All the while, taxi drivers wait in the silence of their cabs for the festivities to finish.

The sound design deliberately muffles all conversation—a formal strategy perfectly in keeping with the filmmaker’s original approach, which above all appeals to the viewer’s imagination. Because in the end, any ordinary night can give birth to extraordinary stories.