“Les bienveillants” is a thoughtful short documentary by Montreal’s Sarah Baril Gaudet. The viewer will have the opportunity to understand the volunteer recruitment process of Tele-Aide a Montreal call centre that specializes in listening to telephone calls from people in mental distress or simply listening to anyone that needs someone to talk to. Tel-Aide was founded in 1971 and since that time has listened to over two million calls.
Volunteers attend an initial screening interview which is followed by some training sessions with actual and simulated calls. What are the most important skills? Good listening skills and being non judgemental are key.
Want to be a fly on the wall at a call centre taking a range of calls from suicidals, callers dealing with drug addiction and loneliness. Perhaps their skills are all what we need in our everyday life.
You can see the trailer here for “Les bienveillants” https://www.sarahbgaudet.com/les-bienveillants
Showing at Toronto Hot Docs Festival 2022 as part of “The Canadian Spectrum Shorts: Stronger Together”. The shorts may be streamed but are geoblocked to Canada.
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