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Géthro Auguste directs the children. (Photo: Jocelyne Clarke)
Over the last few months, Martin Duckworth and I have been shooting the rehearsals and recording sessions for a song for the orphans in Haiti, much more numerous since the January earthquake. The recording of the song is an initiative by Géthro Auguste, the head of a community [...]
Louise-Édith Hébert and Marguerite Bilodeau, photo Marie-Pierre Savard
Over the past two weeks, we launched my French-language film on the Raging Grannies and Mémés Déchaînées, Les super-mémés. It premiered on the 20th of March as closing film for the Human rights film festival in Montreal, at the Park Cinema, and we had another launch screening in [...]
Guinea pig detectives cover page. Illustration by Pierre Durand.
Together with my friend and colleague Patricia Bergeron I spent last week in intensive consultations about cross-platform documentaries - meaning documentaries which aren’t just a film or a TV program but also play themselves out on the web, including in the social networks. ( Cross-platform or transmedia [...]
Béthièle when she was five.
A documentary filmmaker in Canada today might be forgiven for being discouraged. The combined impact of the crisis of television, the more general economic crisis, and the Conservative government’s policies are having a devastating impact on our traditional sources of funding. There is definitely a ‘paradigm shift’ underway. New models of [...]
Ebbe the movie by Jane Magnusson and Karin af Klintberg
The nominations for the Swedish Guldbagge, the equivalent of Quebec’s Jutras were very interesting. In the documentary category Ebbe the movie by Jane Magnusson and Karin af Klintberg is a fascinating film about Publisher Ebbe Carlson, a larger-than life character whose social climbing and political manipulations [...]
We are all of course terribly sad about the tragedy in Haiti – our family not the least since we have a daughter who lived her first years in Port au Prince. I of course encourage everyone to contribute money to the relief and reconstruction efforts.
Among the many film crews now in Port au Prince [...]
I just saw the film The Informant! labeled a dark comedy, directed by Steven Soderbergh, starring Matt Damon, based on the 2000 non-fiction book by the same name by journalist Kurt Eichenwald. It tells the story of a bumbling whistleblower who takes on the management of the giant agribusiness corporation he works for, but who [...]
A couple of days ago, I had the opportunity to once again see Burma VJ, one of the most remarkable documentaries from last year. The film documents the use of small digital cameras by courageous Video Journalists – VJ’s – to reveal what goes on inside the Burmese dictatorship. With digital cameras and satellite uploads [...]
This is about a film which was nominated in three categories at the recent Rencontres internatinales du documentaire de Montreal, and which I saw at Cinema Parallèle the other day. Very much à propos, as the Copenhagen climate change conference enters the real negotiating stage. The film, H2Oil by Shannon Walsh (Loaded Pictures), is about [...]
During the Rencontres Internationales du documentaire de Montréal which just ended, I saw a number of really excellent documentaries. Over the next few weeks I’ll tell you about a couple of them, not just because of their qualities as films but because they are making a difference, having a real impact. To start with, here [...]
Magnus Isacsson is a documentary filmmaker based in Montreal. He specializes in following social, political and environmental conflicts over long periods of time. He also lectures and leads workshops on doc filmmaking.