Documentary Field Notes and Flashpoints: category

I just wrote a very serious blog post, but I decided to save it til after the holiday season. I can see that people are in a party mood, which is a good thing. Even though Christmas and New Year’s come in well after Halloween and Valentine’s in my own Holiday ratings, it is a [...]

French would be the logical language for this post, but I’d like to share this content with people outside Quebec. This past week was Anaïs Barbeau-Lavalette week. This extremely talented, 31-year-old Montreal director launched a novel, held a vernissage for a photo exhibition, and signed a terrific documentary broadcast on Radio-Canada Sunday night at 10.30. [...]

There is a reason why I write this in English. Most francophones in Quebec who take an interest in cinema will already be aware of what I’m about to tell you. “There are adults who have antennas for the secret pain of our little ones – forms of suffering that are often taken to be [...]

Simon Bujold, Jeannine Gagné, MI, Annie Roy et Pierre Allard. Photo: Ariane Jacob Dans le cadre des Rencontres Internationales du documentaire de Montréal, nous avons lancé L’art en action, notre film sur les deux artistes Annie Roy et Pierre Allard qui forment l’ATSA, L’action terroriste socialement acceptable. Les 300 personnes environ présentes dans la salle [...]

Annie Roy and Pierre Allard of ATSA with one component of their installation at the Havana Biennial Annie Roy et Pierre Allard de ATSA avec une partie de leur installation à la Biennale de La Havane [Français plus bas] With my close collaborator Simon Bujold, I am just back from Cuba, where we were filming [...]

Annie Roy à l’occasion de l’overture de CHANGE, le nouveau magasin de l’ATSA Cette semaine nous avons fait un tournage important lors du 10e anniversaire de l’ATSA, l’Action Terroriste Socialement Acceptable, sujet du film URGENCE CRÉATION que je fais avec Simon Bujold.  Annie Roy et Pierre Allard lançaient une publication et ouvraient en même temps [...]

Annie Roy speaking at the opening of ATSA’s new store CHANGE The other day, we went to shoot an important event involving ATSA (Action Terrosite Socialement Acceptable). To commemorate their 10 years of doing art interventions, they opened a new store, CHANGE. The name has a double meaning, referring to both the spare change they [...]

Simon (camera) and myself filming Pierre and Annie at State of Emergency. (Photo by Marc-André Verpaelst.) ( This is a translation of a post from last week.) I wrote about our shoot at ‘State of Emergency,’ the artistic & social happening organized by Annie Roy and Pierre Allard in Montréal. It’s for my project ‘Urgence [...]

Myself and Simon Bujold (camera) filming Annie Roy and Pierre Allard, the founders of ATSA. Photo Marc-André Verpaelst. Je vous avais parlé de notre tournage à État d’Urgence, le ‘happening’ artistique et social organisé par Annie Roy et Pierre Allard. Trois stagiaires sont venus nous aider durant la semaine. Je leur ai demandé qu’est-ce qu’ils [...]

Photo Marc-André Verpaelst (This was first posted in french, thanks to Jeannette Pope for the translation.) Wednesday evening we began Filming State of Emergency 2007, ( État d’Urgence 2007) an artistic and social ‘happening” which takes place in Émilie Gamelin square in Montreal until Sunday the 25 Nov. Organized by the artists Annie Roy and [...]