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Michel Huneault's project La longue nuit de Mégantic, 2013–2014 documents the evolution of trauma and mourning following a disaster on July 6, 2013 in which 47 residents of Lac-Mégantic died after a train filled with shale oil derailed and exploded in the middle of the small city.
July 6, 2017 marks the 4th anniversary of the Mégantic disaster. Huneault's above video, The Following Days - Les jours suivants, is part of a new chapter of work, The New Memories, 2014–2016, which documents the community of Lac-Mégantic going forward. Read Huneault's statement on the video below.
December 2014: A last visit after eighteen months
Following a year of debates, the city decides to flatten the remaining half of the contaminated downtown that had not been destroyed yet in the explosion, but which was still soaking in oil. As a farewell, the authorities is opening the exclusion zone for one single day. For the first time in 18 months, Méganticois have free access—for 8 hours—to their downtown before it gets erased.
October 2016: Re-opening after three years
The red zone has been cleaned and the fence has been removed for a week now. There are new streets and sidewalks surrounded by flat plots ready to be built on. But almost no one is walking through the zone since they removed the fence. To bring the people in, an Halloween party is organized in middle of the zone. Mostly only young families are attending. I see a kid, dressed as french fries, biting into a warm grilled cheese sandwich. I wonder if this will count as a new lasting memory, for him or for me.
