Documentary Field Notes and Flashpoints: category

Photo of Haj Ali, an Iraqi teacher. He was held captive at the Abu Ghraib prison. His left hand is permanently paralyzed due to badly undergone treatments.
My friend Patricio Henríquez, who settled in Canada after he fled Chile due to the coup d’état led by Pinochet, is one of the best documentary filmmakers in the [...]

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 hope [...]

Myself and Martin Duckworth filming the Grannies in Vermont.

I am still working on my film about the Raging Grannies, the movement of elderly women fighting for peace, social justice and the environment with satirical songs and the occasional guerrilla action. I have decided to edit some of the Grannies’ songs as music videos, and [...]

Rivens, father and sons

The other day I went to see an excellent documentary directed by Eric Scott and produced by my friend Frederic Bohbot and Evan Beloff of Bunbury Films, here in Montreal. The film is called ‘Leaving the Fold’ and it’s about young people who have left their Orthodox jewish families and culture to [...]

Image Mills in Quebec City
The other day my friend Stefan Nitoslawski and I undertook a pilgrimage to Quebec City to see theatre director - and sometimes filmmaker - Robert Lepage’s Image Mills. It is part of the celebrations of the 400th anniversary of Quebec City. Lepage comes from there, and his company Ex Machina is [...]

Sexy
A report by Quebec’s Conseil du Statut de la Femme (Status of Women Council) published this week sounds the alarm. The stereotyping in the media and in advertising lead to the hypersexualisation of youth, young women in particular. The girls have to be seductive and do everything to please the boys. Their self-esteem is out [...]

Radioactive uranium tailings at Elliot Lake.
One of my first films, released 18 years ago, was Uranium, about the radioactive wastes from uranium mining on aboriginal lands in Canada. Not a very exciting title, and there was a reason for it. Faced with intense pressure from the uranium mining industry, the NFB sent a letter to [...]

From The Diamond Road
Can you be a documentary filmmaker in the present tough context and still have a life I do my best to have time for family and friends, and to get out in the bush or on a river somewhere regularly. This past weekend I was out paddling with another documentary producer/director, my [...]

Young@Heart
One of the most inspiring documentaries I have seen in recent years is playing in at least one theatre in Montreal right now. Young@Heart , by British filmmaker Stephen Walker, tells the story of a choir of elderly people preparing for an important concert in their Massachusetts home town. But they are not singing [...]

Documentary instructors Peter Raymont and Steve Lucas with director Derreck Roemer and Jan Rofekamp, president and CEO of Film Transit International, at SIFT 2007.
Last december I had the opportunity to teach a two-day workshop on the basics of doc-making for the Canadian Screen Training Centre in Montreal. At the same time Nettie Wild and others [...]