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Annabel Loyola was leading us through the maze that is the Hôtel-Dieu Hospital. Her publicist Caroline Rompré, Montreal Gazette photographer Dave Sidaway and I were like streamers, flapping along behind as the filmmaker whisked us down hallways, on and off elevators, up staircases and around corners, greeting familiar faces as she went.

“Annabel knows the Hôtel-Dieu like the back of her hand,” Rompré had told me beforehand. No kidding. Filming a place for two years straight will do that, even if the place in question is a sprawling, storied complex such as this.

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Loyola’s previous film, 2012’s La folle entreprise: sur les pas de Jeanne Mance (A Mad Venture: In the Footsteps of Jeanne Mance), retraced the remarkable journey of its titular subject, who coincidentally hails from Loyola’s hometown of Langres, France, and who has since been officially recognized as co-founder of the city of Montreal.