Documentary Field Notes and Flashpoints: category

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 [...]

Orphélins à Port-au-Prince. Photo: Marcello Casal Jr/ABr
Selon l’UNICEF, le tremblement de terre en Haiti a crée la situation la plus désastreuse pour les enfants de toute l’histoire de l’humanité. Il y a des dizaines de milliers d’orphélins parmi les centaines de milliers de personnes blessées et sans-abri.
Ayant une fille d’Haiti, ayant déjà visité des orphélinats [...]

Mon film ‘Enfants de Choeur‘ sur la chorale des sans-abris de Montréal, terminé il y a dix ans, sera projeté à la Cinémathéque québecoise à Montréal ce samedi le 19 Décembre. Et ce sera une projection-événement puisque la nouvelle incarnation du groupe, la Chorale sous les étoiles - autrefois Chorele de l’Acceuil Bonneau - sera [...]

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 ont [...]

Muriel reading. Photo: Terre Nash
Sadly we just learned that our friend Muriel Duckworth, pioneering feminist and peace activist, passed away Saturday morning at the venerable age of 100. I say we, because many of my relatives and friends knew and admired Muriel, a tireless opponent of war and injustice in all forms. You can read [...]

Marching Grannies
All photos by Alan Auvaart (see below)
I just came back from filming the Raging Grannies in action at the protest against the CANSEC arms fair in Ottawa. It is the largest event of its kind in Canada, showcasing all the best new ways to inflict pain, cause death and create mayhem. It was held [...]

Power is in inflicting pain and humiliation. Power is in tearing human minds to pieces and putting them together again in shapes of your own choosing…If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face – forever.
George Orwell, Nineteen Eighty-four, 1949
A really efficient totalitarian state would be one in [...]

Mémés and Grannies sing in front of Eaton Center
Continuing to shoot our film abut the Raging Grannies and their French-speaking sisters, the Mémés Déchaïnées. Last week we joined Louise-Édith Hébert and Anna-Louise Fontaine as they picked up several other Mémés and brought them down to a rehearsal with the Raging Grannies. They then went over [...]

This film which I co-directed with Martin Duckworth, has been playing in three theatres in Montreal and Quebec City over the last few weeks. Martin and myself attended many of the screenings and stayed for Q’s & A’s, sometimes in the company of some of the film’s main characters. We have received many messages stating [...]

Depuis deux semaines, les journaux et médias électroniques ont beaucoup parlé du film LA BATAILLE DE RABASKA que j’ai co-réalisé avec Martin Duckworth. (Production ONF, Yves Bisaillon et Johanne Bergeron.) Toute cette attention est due en partie à l’excellent travail de notre relationniste Marie-Claude Lamoureux. Je vous reviendrai sur l’impact que toute cette couverture médiatique [...]