Documentary Field Notes and Flashpoints: category

Jean-Daniel Lafond
The other day, as U.S. President Obama touched down in Ottawa, I asked my students at l’INIS, the Quebec Film school, a question. ‘Which documentary filmmaker will be meeting with Obama today?’ Puzzled looks, no answers. They asked for a lead. ‘OK, I said, he is also a French citizen.’ ‘Oh, of course,’ [...]

A still from Laurent Catnet’s film The Class [original French title: Entre les murs]
Have you noticed how many and how many recent fiction films look like documentaries, or are inspired by documentaries? I recently wrote about Milk - up for several Oscars - which borrows many scenes from the documentary The Times of Harvey Milk. [...]

Lorsque la série Manifestes en série de Hugo Latulippe a été télédiffusée l’année passée, j’étais trop occupé pour regarder plus que quelques bribes, mais j’ai pris bonne note du fait qu’un réseau spécialisé (Canal D) diffusait une série intéressante et progressiste. Maintenant, une autre chaîne spécialisée, Canal Vie – aussi propriété d’Astral Média – vient [...]

Myself and Simon Bujold (on camera) wearing our techincian hats, filming Annie Roy on St. Lawrence Avenue in Montreal. Photo by Michel Gélinas.
Fellow filmmaker Manfred Becker, director and editor based in Toronto (director of Fatherland, co-director of Diamond Road) recently wrote to me with a question. He was preparing for a workshop he was giving [...]

Harvey Milk (left); Sean Penn playing Harvey Milk (right)
Last week, I saw both the 1984 documentary The Times of Harvey Milk, directed by Rob Epstein, and the recently released fiction film Milk, directed by Gus van Sant. Both tell the story of the rise to prominence and assassination of the first openly gay man to [...]

Paul Lapointe
Je vous avais parlé, avant de partir en Europe, de la projection fantastique de Robert Lepage, ‘Le Moulin à Images’, dans le cadre du 400e de Québec. Voici la réaction de mon ami Paul Lapointe. Il a longtemps travaillé pour l’ONF avant de devenir producteur indépendent et de fonder la compagnie Érézi en octobre [...]

Photo par Simon Bujold.
Monique Simard est une des productrices de documentaires les plus dynamiques du Québec (voir biographie à la fin), et elle a une vision du rôle du documentaire dans la société que je partage entièrement. C’est pourquoi je salue sa nomination au poste de Directrice du programme français de l’ONF. Je connais [...]

Up The Yangtze, a film by Yung Chang
When I attended the Hot Docs Festival in Toronto a few weeks ago, a heard a lot of talk about the CBC, much of it disgruntled. Once back in Montreal, I summarized these concerns and sent them to Andrew Johnson, Commissioning editor and senior producer of [...]

Jean-Pierre Gariépy and Manon Barbeau, respectively Executive Director and President of the Observatoire. My photo.
I’d like to tell you about a pioneering coalition-building experience based here in Montreal, one which could serve as an example for the rest of Canada and even internationally.
Since it was founded ten years ago, I have worked with [...]

André Thibault, photo Simon Bujold

A l’invitation de André Thibault, j’ai collaboré au numéro spécial de la revue Possibles sur ‘le documentaire, art engagé’ qui vient de sortir. Au menu une table ronde avec des documentaristes ainsi que des articles sur notamment le collectif des Lucioles, Gilles Groulx, le documentaire et les femmes et bien [...]