Must-watch Station 10 documentary

Station 10 by Michael Scott, National Film Board of Canada

     This truly amazing documentary on Montreal's downtown police Station 10 was filmed from late 1971 over the period of one year. There's a lot of time shifting, so you see cops discussing the 1971 murder of a motorcycle policeman near the end, another incredible scene of his partner in shock walking around the station kitchen.      
   That scene would have been filmed by cameraman Roger Morellec, who I spoke to this morning about the fascinating and sometimes scary movie. Morellec had recently arrived from France and had to sign a waiver to participate in the filming, which turned out to be pretty "rock'n'roll" as he put it.
     The second half of the film was filmed by another cameraman, also from France, those scenes contain such moments as the Rolling Stones getting out of their camper to enter the Montreal Forum. (48:30)
       Morellec says that one of his memories of filming involved getting his camera broken by a guy lying in a cell. "He got up and punched the camera in the lens. He didn't want to be filmed."
     Generally,however, people did not apparently mind being filmed, he recalls.
     One scene he recalls involves a group of hoods who had their operations right next door to the station, scenes demonstrate cops finding a whole lot of weapons.
   Raw emotion is displayed at 53:10 when discussing the murder of motorcycle cop Jean-Guy Sabourin on Dec. 11, 1971, a crime that John Slawvey was suspected of committing.
      Morellec says he thinks he didn't film the most shocking moments of the film, which shows police rescuing a young girl from a gang of bikers on Souvenir St. in Little Burgundy, (20:00) . Nine of the bikers had beaten and raped a young girl in the basement. They are shown in full belligerent mode. They were charged with weapons offenses but not for rape, as the victim did not want to complain.
       Nor did he film another amazing scene, in which cops diligently search for black suspects who had apparently conducted a home invasion on two greasy little hippies.
   The two victims weren't so innocent after all, however, as they pulled a drug burn on the black suspects. The police are seen terrorizing residents of another apartment simply because they're black.(43:20)
  "Always remember if you don't go to the discipline board, you're never known in the department," said Fred Rose at his retirement speech in Feb. 1972. (52:00)

     Other brief scene shows a pretty young university student blatantly flirting with a cop in front of McGill (11:08) and and a retirement speech by a boss who tells the cops that they'll never get respect until they're brought in front of the disciplinary committee.
      "The officers were like anybody, some were good, some were bad," said Morellec, although he recalls one cop named Savage who apparently lived up to his name.
      The first cop that appears is Lieut. Det. Kenny Abraham, a tall Lebanese guy with a pencil moustache (3:30, "chicks can make the most trouble in the world for you") died very young of cancer. His son Sgt. Det. Steve Abraham is with the force in Homicide and Major Crimes. If anybody has other tips on where-are-they-now please write them in the comments section and I'll try to add to it.
     I would absolutely love to do a video based on this movie, with interviews from people of that era to see what became of those in the documentary.