Documentary Field Notes and Flashpoints: category

I come from a family of teachers and the artists. From the former, in particular my mother Kerstin and her father Effe, I learned about the value of intellectual curiosity and learning. From the artists I feel I learned not just about aesthetics, but also about the value of a creative interpretation of the world [...]

This week: following my previous post on the NFB’s multi-platform project GDP: Measuring the Human Side of the Canadian Economic Crisis, here is an interview with Hélène Choquette, the project’s director and coordinator.
The above image is pulled from the excellent photo essay, Poetic Justice - one of Hélène’s own compositions - featuring [...]

Pioneering cinematographer Dziga Vertov (the Camera Eye) dreamed of an omnipresent camera, one which could look at reality from all angles and at all times. Could he ever have imagined today’s reality, with everyone recording video on their cameras and cell phones?
As Quebec filmmaker Philippe Falardeau says, we are in the age of “tout le [...]

This week at Sunny Side of the Doc at La Rochelle, the NFB and Arte.tv France announced a collaboration for the production of webdocumentaries. They will produce one documentary per year, with a budget of $100,000 CDN. The two companies already have considerable experience with webdocs.
For almost a year, the NFB has hosted [...]

Last Friday night, Ole Gjerstad’s and Joelie Sanguya’s film Qimmit: A Clash of Two Truths premiered at the Cinéma Parallèle as part of the Présence autochtone aboriginal film festival.
Co-produced by Piksuk Media Inc. and the National Film Board of Canada, the film won the Rigoberta Menchu Second Prize at the 20th First Peoples’ Festival [...]

I have heard many people say that multi-platform production is ‘just another way to tell a story.’ It sounds simple, clear-cut, reassuring.
But is that it? I think not. There is a huge difference in the way you can communicate content with a multi-platform project.
When you tell a linear story, you are grappling with [...]

I went to see Garry Beitel’s film The Socalled Movie when it premiered in Montreal a few days ago. A terrific evening: great film, great audience, all very Montreal. The post-screening Q & A was followed by a concert by the film’s main character, musician Socalled (aka Josh Dolgin) with his band.

Socalled [...]

This is a still taken from an excellent interactive web documentary, Prison Valley by David Dufresne & Philippe Brault, produced by arte.tv and upian.com, in partnership with FranceInter, Libération.fr and Yahoo.com.

The world of documentary production is in the midst of an upheaval, the likes of which have not been seen since the coming of cinema [...]

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 [...]

Regular guest blogger Jocelyne Clarke wrote this about a very committed Montreal filmmaker.

At the recent edition of Vues d’Afrique, I attended Erica Pomerance’s just completed film, ‘Opération Survie’, about a medical condition that affects approximately two million women worldwide : obstetrical fistula.

Generally associated with primitive birthing conditions, delivery complications and inadequate health care, [...]