The Cinémathèque québécoise plays host to William Klein and his dissident eye, an event including 23 films and 22 photographs and photograms from a dedicated, groundbreaking artist. An American expat in Paris, Klein became a fashion photographer for vogue in the mid-fifties. Later, he published photo essays that focused on major international cities and skewered the way post-war society was evolving. From 1957 to 1997, he made art house films, reports for French television, documentaries and fiction features. For his film work, he adopted formal strategies that borrowed from the aesthetics of his photographs (intimate close-ups, off-centre framing and bodies distorted by a wide-angle lens). His films championed rights and freedoms and especially condemned Western imperialism. Klein captured the May 1968 protests in France, took a stand against the Vietnam War and delved into the worlds of politics, fashion, sports and entertainment. He encountered celebrities of the day and called on talented up-and-comers to help create his “delirious fictions.” Get ready to discover a maverick, a humanist and truly one of the 20th century’s leading artists.