The Zebra never loses its stripe: Martin Duckworth and Terence Macartney-Filgate check out a new camera.
Last weekend I attended the launch of Challenge for Change: Activist Documentary at the National Film Board, an anthology edited by my friends Tom Waugh ( Concordia Film Studies professor, in red shirt) and Ezra Winton (Cinema Politica Founder, to the right in picture) along with McGill PhD student Michael Brendan Baker.
The authors Michael Brendan Baker, Tom Waugh and Ezra Winton.
Challenge for Change ( Société Nouvelle on the French side) was a groundbreaking National Film Board of Canada program, exceptionally progressive for a government institution, aiming at putting film and later video at the service of active citizens and their movements, and even sometimes giving them varying degrees of control over production. Many of the veterans of Challenge for Change participated in the launch event, while the francophones from the French program équivalent Société Nouvelle – some of them leading filmmakers like Maurice Bulbulian, Anne-Claire Poirier and Fernand Dansereau – were practically all absent, each for their own reasons. The authors had wisely decided to show clips from films made by those who were present, which made for some interesting presentations and comments. As there is a digital program playlist for Challenge for Change on the NFB site, created for this occasion, I won’t ask my assistant Jessica to link to all the individual film titles here. Among those who presented clips from their films were Colin Low ( Billy Craig Moves away), Terence Macartney-Filgate ( Up Against the System), Challenge for Change Executive Director 1968-70 George Stoney and Mike Mitchell (You’re on Indian Land), Dorothy Hénaut ( VTR St.Jacques), Martin Duckworth ( Cell 16), Peter Pearson ( Encounter with Saul Alinsky), Adam Symansky ( producer of Paper Wheat) and Francine Saia ( A qui appartient ce gage.)
Dorothy Hénault
George Stoney
It was great to meet these old-timers from Challenge for Change, and to see that some of them are still active and just can’t stop shooting. I thought it would have been interesting to have a discussion, notably to compare what was done during those heady years with what is done now with digital technologies and the web 2.0 interactivity, but time was up and we had to settle for refreshments and smalltalk. Presumably in the 38 articles and 500 pages of the book one will find many elements to enrich this discussion. Anyway, congrats to the authors for finishing a huge research and editing job, and for documenting this very important experience.
Publsiher: McGill-Queen’s University Press.
For Montrealers: you can buy the book at the Concordia Community Solidarity Co-op Bookstore.
Thanks to Jessica Berglund for the help with this blog.
