Francophone Culture, Cirque du Soleil & Montreal's Arts Scene

Montreal's francophone culture (the culture of the largest French-speaking city in the world outside of Paris — the city whose French language and culture have been the source of some of the most significant cultural productions in 20th and 21st-century North America): the Cirque du Soleil (the circus company founded in Montreal in 1984 by the street performers Guy Laliberté and Gilles Ste-Croix — the company that revolutionized the circus art form and grew into the largest theatrical producer in the world), the National Film Board of Canada (the NFB — the federal film production and distribution agency established in Montreal in 1939, responsible for some of the most celebrated documentary and animated films in cinema history), and the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts define Montreal's cultural output.