Documentary Field Notes and Flashpoints: category

A few days ago I went to a terrific benefit concert for Wapikoni mobile at Club Soda in downtown Montreal. Some great artists, including Anishnabe rapper Samian, Inuit singer-songwriter Elisapie Isaac, singer-songwriter Richard Séguin and the immensely popular group Loco Locass put on a great show. (Photo by Guy Labissionnaire.) I find Samian’s lyrics and [...]

Heureusement la Québec a une politique culturelle et s’est donné le cadre institutionnel nécessaire pour la mettre en pratique. La semaine passée, le Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec (CALQ) remettait des bourses de carrière à quatre cinéastes :  Jean-Pierre Lefebvre, Mireille Dansereau, André Gladu, et Garry Beitel. Ma collègue Helene Kladowsky et [...]

Quebec fortunately has a cultural policy and the institutional framework to implement it. Last week the Quebec Arts Council (Conseil des arts et lettes du Québec) celebrated the recipients of four special career grants in media arts. One of them very deservedly went to documentarian Garry Beitel. Together with Helene Klodawsky I was asked to [...]

This past weekend I attended a memorial service for Guy Tremblay, a sometimes-homeless singer and volunteer worker affectionately known as ‘Ti-Guy’ in the shelters and soup kitchens in downtown Montreal. The service, at the Notre Dame des Lourdes chapel on St. Catherine street East was warm and unpretentious, marked by the social context of an [...]

I find it interesting that I sometimes get very positive response to blog items which are more personal. A while back I wrote about the visual artists in my family as a source of inspiration: my father Arne, who died a few months ago, my uncle Torsten, my sister Eva. But another big influence was [...]

Last week, at the Rencontres Internationales du Documentaire de Montréal, I had a chance to see the latest film by one of the world’s best documentarians, Kim Longinotto. In Pink Saris, she tells the story of the ‘Pink Gang’ of women in Uttar Pradesh, one of India’s poorest states. Led by a tough lady named [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]