The late writer/director Chris Marker (La jetée, Sans Soleil) cast his critical gaze toward French social attitudes in the early 1960s after the Algerian War. The spring of 1962 was a hopeful season that held the elusive promise of peacetime, following years of political agitation and terrorist insurgency.

For Le joi mai, the filmmakers interviewed Parisians about a wide range of topics, from dancing to racism, editing the footage into what French newspaper Paris-Presse called "a sincere, brilliant, and highly idiosyncratic essay.” The new restoration was supervised by the film's cinematographer and co-director, Pierre Lhomme, with music by Michel Legrand and English narration by Simone Signoret.