‘Who Killed the Montreal Expos?’: New documentary premieres at Festival du Nouveau Cinéma

Montreal’s Festival du Nouveau Cinéma is holding a special world premiere on Thursday night for a new documentary by local award-winning documentary filmmaker Jean-François Poisson that’s sure to unite baseball fans and cinephiles alike.

Called a true love letter to Montreal, “Who Killed the Montreal Expos?” pays tribute to Canada’s first Major League Baseball team through rare archival footage and interviews with some of the greatest figures of the game including Felipe Alou, Vladimir Guerrero, Pedro Martinez, David Samson, Larry Walker, and Claude Brochu, as well as Rodger Brulotte, Chantal Machabée and many others.

“When I started speaking to people, fans of the Exposed, I realized that there were a lot of unanswered questions, a lot of resentment, I lot of anger, a bit of shame, a lot of sadness and all those emotions for me was a link to something that was like an unresolved grief,” said Poisson. “So we wanted to do a movie about that.”

Two decades after the Montreal Expos played their final home game at the Olympic Stadium on Sept. 9, 2004, an event that rocked the city’s fans, the investigative documentary now serves as a behind-the-scenes look into the controversies, setbacks and missteps that led to the eventual loss of the team all grew to love.

“The expo story is a whole discussion that has been turning around for so many years. So I think this will add some fuel to the discussion. And I hope everybody will enjoy it,” said Poisson.

In addition to players’ testimony, the documentary includes candid interviews from journalists, former employers and diehard fans who lived through the saga.

“I don’t know if the truth will come out, but a lot of fingers are going to be pointed in the right direction, but you know what, Expos fans are smart, we know where the truth lies already,” said Perry Giannias, a participant in the documentary and the president of Expos Fest.

Defined as a “sports drama, cultural love story, and gripping whodunit,” the documentary unravels in detail the mystery that led to the downfall of the Expos, a team that had been around for 35 years.

The documentary will be available for streaming on Oct. 21 on Netflix.

“It’s a love letter to Montreal and it will be shown in a lot of countries to a lot of viewers, more than 300 million viewers,” said Poisson.

“I know it’s a sad story for the Montrealer fan, but I think what I realized during this movie is that we lost our team, but we fought a lot to keep it, and I think we should be proud of this part.”

The 54th edition of the Festival du Nouveau Cinéma runs until Oct. 19.

In the end, Canadians may have lost their beloved team, but they still have the Toronto Blue Jays to cheer on after they snagged a victory on Wednesday night against the New York Yankees.

“They’re going to the ALCS, so I know that they’re going to go to the World Series!” said Giannias.