This dissertation explores the connections between image-making practices, discourses of nationalism, Quebecois cinema and the possibility of the cinema functioning as an alternative public sphere. The thesis draws upon sociological theories of nationalism, political theory, film theory, critical theory and cultural critique in order to reconsider the potential political power of the cinematic image. After surveying contrasting theories of nationalism, the thesis addresses itself to Jurgen Habermas' concept of the public sphere and the revisions of this concept undertaken by contemporary social and political theorists. The use-value of the concept of the public sphere in relation to film theory is then explored. Beginning with pioneering work of Leo-Ernest Ouimet in the silent era and continuing on through to the video activism of Societe nouvelle and the "post-referendum" cinema of Denys Arcand and Robert Lepage, this thesis traces recurring instances of the cinema functioning as a contestatory and alternative public sphere in Quebecois culture.

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