English – Page 11 – Documentary Field Notes and Flashpoints

CBC commissioning editors disagree with perceptions

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Up The Yangtze, a film by Yung Chang

When I attended the Hot Docs Festival in Toronto a few weeks ago, a heard a lot of talk about the CBC, much of it disgruntled. Once back in Montreal, I summarized these concerns and sent them to Andrew Johnson, Commissioning editor and senior producer of ‘The Lense’ who was very generous with his time and also consulted his colleageues, Catherine Olsen and Michael Claydon. Here’s our exchange:

Dear Andrew, hope this finds you well. I publish a blog on doc matters. I noticed at Hot Docs that there’s a perception that the CBC no longer plays the role it used to in documentary, especially social-political, and that the private broadcasters are picking up the slack. Some com-eds from private networks told me they find themselves with a lot of projects which even they think would be – or used to be – a natural fit for the CBC. Who at CBC would be the right person to ask a few questions to about this ?
Do you yourself have a (quotable) opinion on the subject ?

The response:

Magnus:

Thanks for your note and the information about your blog. I’ve consulted with my colleagues Catherine Olsen and Michael Claydon and, with respect, we all disagree with the implication that CBC is somehow less interested in or less engaged in the creation of documentaries, “especially social-political” documentaries. Each of us has the following response…

Catherine Olsen:

“The CBC & CBC Newsworld continue to be a champion of documentaries dealing with political and social issues. Is it true that we’re focusing more on Canada and Canadian social political issues in our commissioning – possibly – just as many other Canadian and international broadcasters are championing stories on their home turf. This is a worldwide trend …. but we still have some extraordinary examples of international stories that we commission including the theatrical and television hit Up the Yangtze, Liberty USA, Anthrax War, Stolen Babies, The Last Planet (the latter 4 still in production). On the acquisition and pre-sale front, The Passionate Eye continues as it has for the past 15 years to show more docs dealing with international social political issues than any other channel in Canada. (2 nights a week, 52 weeks a year).”

Michael Claydon:

“Most of the documentaries shown on the DOC ZONE are social/political in nature – what has changed is that we are putting more of an emphasis on a more journalistic approach at the main net, and trying to develop a brand that CBC viewers will respond to. That may not fit with the approach of some documentary makers, but the fact remains that CBC TV, CBC Newsworld and Documentary commission more hours than any other broadcaster in Canada.”

Andrew Johnson:

“Lens docs primarily deal with contemporary social and political issues – in fact we’re more committed than ever to these films, but they do need to connect with the national audience we serve at CBC Newsworld – a news and current affairs network. All of our docs are, of course, are made by independent Canadian film-makers, mainly through commissions.

This season and next we have aired or will air commissioned films dealing with everything from anti-Wal-Mart activists, same-sex couples trying to adopt children, and the collision of drug issues & US-Canada relations to an experimental diet that may lead to a breakthrough in the fight against the obesity and diabetes epidemics in First Nations communities, the human cost of Canada’s refugee backlog, and the enormous social cost of revenue-generating video lottery terminals. We also look forward to airing a film about the collision of conflicting interests (government, environmental, tourism & First Nation) as efforts to cope with a unique, people-friendly orca lead to a tragic ending. This documentary has already won a dozen international and Canadian awards.

All of these films deal with tough or difficult subjects through engaging and dramatic stories. They pursue social-political issues through a wide range of approaches and are of real interest to Canadians. At Newsworld, we’ve been very pleased with the huge audience response to our documentaries this season just we’re gratified by the numerous awards our films and our filmmakers have won in recent years.”

Of course, there are other outlets for documentaries (including social-political) on CBC – such as The Nature of Things and Documentary.

In conclusion, we simply can’t accept the assessment of CBC that you’ve mentioned -we believe we’re still a home for provocative, cinematic and entertaining social-political docs. Of course, we can’t participate in all of the worthwhile projects that come to us so we’re happy to hear that the private networks are now entertaining these kinds of stories too. Nevertheless, we remain open to receiving new proposals from Canadian documentary-makers at anytime – and we will continue to commission and broadcast powerful, independently-made documentaries.

with best wishes,
Andrew

Andrew Johnson
Commissioning Editor &
Senior Producer, “The Lens”

A beautiful film : ‘My father’s studio’

Jennifer Alleyn with her dad Edmund.

Not long ago I had the chance to see ‘My father’s studio’, a beautiful film by Jennifer Alleyn produced by Jeannine Gagné at Amazone Films. The opening screening will be at ExCentris in French and at Cinéma du Parc in English starting May 9th. Excellent editing by Annie Jean. It’s one of those films one should see on a big screen. It won the award for best Canadian production at the Festival des films sur l’art (FIFA) in Montreal.

He was a great artist, Edmund Alleyn: a master colorist, very creative and original. We learn from Jennifer’s movie that her dad made many new departures during his career. Every time he had a real success, he let go of whatever style he’d been working in, and started again in a new uncertain adventure.

Creative, original, but not talkative. Jennifer did one interview with him which is placed right at the top of the film. What he sais is heartfelt and full of meaning, but she had to work really hard to get just a few sentences from him. He died not long after. The movie is a testimony about his life and his art.

Beyond the cinematic qualities of the film, I found myself in familiar territory, because my dad Arne is an artist. He lives in Sweden and he still painting and teaching at age 91. My uncle Torsten, who died one year ago, was a painter and sculptor. My sister Eva paints watercolours and does drawings. Watching Jennifer’s film, I almost could smell the oil paint of the artist studios of my childhood.

I am sure it was not easy for Jennifer to make a film about her dad, and I asked her some questions.

How came up the idea to make a movie about you’re dad?
I’ve been wanting to do a film about my father for a long time. His double identity intrigued me. Born to an English family in Quebec City, he liked to say he was “French to the skin, English to the bone”. I feel connected to that reality. I was born in Paris in May 1968 and we immigrated back to Quebec in 1971. His life span covers recent Quebec history.
But it took me years and his departure, to find the approach that would allow me to plunge into his universe, his imaginings, while remaining respectful of his privacy. Can we ever access the soul of another being? During the research, I discovered he was quite a free thinker, and a philosopher as well as a painter. But the film doesn’t resolve or explain anything. It offers images to the viewer’s own interpretation. One mustn’t forget it is a posthumous dialogue, taking place in the silence of painting..

What are, do you think, the big themes in the movie?
I was very inspired by his work & notes . The fact that I started filming while he was alive and persued the shoot in his absence, gave a particular tonality to the film. In a way, it gave me the opportunity to follow some of his privileged themes: movement and stillness.
Life and death coexist in the film. But it was a celebration of life that I wanted to put on the screen. The title of the film refers to the physical space in which he worked for 40 years, but also to the creator’s mind, constantly processing images, memories, ideas, hopes or unfinished projects.

It’s a really personal film, did you hesitate before starting the process?

I never hesitated, but I went to television to see if the subject could interest others. Surprisingly, the French CBC immediately agreed to the voyage I was proposing. I knew my father was not a celebrity in Quebec, like Jean-Paul Riopelle or Borduas. But his path was very inspiring. He was as free spirit. Now that the film is finished I wonder what will be the next project that will drive me with such strength. It was so dense and deep.

Could you have done the movie while you’re dad was still alive? Do you regret that you didn’t ?

My only regret is that he couln’t be at the premiere of the film!

But had he still been around, it would have been impossible to do this film . He was quite a director himself. He would have called the shots and hired me as his assistant! So I waited for my turn. After his departure, I could revisit his life, question his trajectory, search for the missing fragments. Inheriting his studio gave me a dramatic starting point. The idea of structuring the film according as a stream of consciousness imposed itself very soon. Knowing my father’s love for Virgina Woolf, I would’nt be surprised if she whispered from the darkness…

In the narration,you decided to talk to you’re dad. Is it mainly a choice you made to communicate with the public, or is it because you had things to tell him, to clear up between the two of you ?
During the scriptwriting process, I wrote short texts to my father. Like Haicu’s. Some of them were too personal, but some made their way to the final narration.Through this very intimate dialogue, the father-daughter relationship is offered up. I though people could enter more easily into this intimate space if it was raw. No detour, no mask. Bluntly intimate!. The father figure has always been one of knowledge for me. His absence made me realise I had to turn to other sources to find answers. I guess I had a few unanswered ones I needed to bounce at him. I hope people can interchange characters and address their own parent, in the anonymity of the cinema!

Pioneering coalition-building: L’Observatoire du documentaire.

Jean-Pierre Gariépy and Manon Barbeau, respectively Executive Director and President of the Observatoire. My photo.

I’d like to tell you about a pioneering coalition-building experience based here in Montreal, one which could serve as an example for the rest of Canada and even internationally.

Since it was founded ten years ago, I have worked with Montreal’s documentary film festival, the Rencontres. Five years ago, the Rencontres took the initiative for the setting up of the Observatoire du documentaire, which was given the ambiguous english name The Documentary Network. It is actually a coalition, a pressure group which brings together all the main forces producing, broadcasting and distributing documentary film. It brings to the table – for monthly meetings – the professional organizations of producers, directors and technicians, the main television networks producing docs, the National Film Board, distributors, and of course the Rencontres. There is no parallel to this anywhere else in the country. Instead of treating each other as opponents, all these forces come together around common goals: favouring and strengthening documentary filmmaking and its role in society.

Having such disparate organizations working together creates a most interesting dynamic. Everyone has to put some water in their wine and make an effort to come to agreement with the others, but that is only half the story. The representatives of the organizations then have to go back to their respective organizations and fight for what has been agreed on, or what is being prepared for the next meeting. This means that the representatives of the producers or directors have to convince their own colleagues – many of whom produce fiction and television series – to defend the interests of documentary. It means that the broadcasters have to deal with the concerns of the documentary community not just as ‘demands’ from the outside, but as common concerns in which they also have a stake. The Observatoire acts to cement the alliance of all the partners and thereby gives them greater force as a lobby group. During this past year, the Observatoire intervened in numerous ways with the CRTC and other government agencies to favour the interests of documentary production.

Although it’s based in Quebec, the Observatoire has several pan-canadian members. It could serve as an inspiration for English Canada, or it could potentially become a truly representative, bilingual, coast-to-coast organization. It is definitely setting an example.

As a director working in both English and French, I am a member of two organizazations: the Associaction des Réalisateurs et Réalisatrices du Québec (ARRQ) and the Documentary Organization of Canada. Both of these are members of l’Observatoire. I used to be on the executive of DOC, when it was called the Canadian Independent Film Caucus, but these days I attend the meetings of the Observatoire as one of the representatives of the ARRQ.

Cinema Politica faces funding crisis.

Townshop residents in South Africa connect to power grid. From The Big Sellout.

Cinema Politica is the name of a program of screenings which was started at Concordia University in Montreal by Ezra Winton and the Uberculture media arts non-profit five years ago, and which has branched out to a number of other cities on the North American continent and even overseas. Its list of screeings reads like a roll call of the best of recent sociopolitical documentaries: Loose Change, The Corporation, Crude Impact, Seeing is Beleiving, McLibel, The Big Sellout....OK now I can hear my webmestre Kim saying ‘you should have links to these movies.’ But actually, they are all there on the Cinema Politica website, along with many other great films, so check them, out.

The Cinema Politica screenings in Monteal have been a huge success. The two or three screenings I went to last year were attended by about five hundred people. There is a real thirst and enthusiasm out there for political docs, for films that are hard to find on TV. But now, sadly, Cinema Politica’s survival is threatened by a funding crisis. It is really essential for this series of screenings to continue ! I put a few questions to Ezra Winton.

How did Cinema Politica start and how long has it been running ?
I started it in 2001 at Langara College and it eventually migrated
with me to Concordia where it was renewed in 2003. I started in order
to:
a) address the incredible lack of diversity in Canadian movie theatres
b) help build audiences and support independent Canadian documentary
and fiction
c) use film to inspire audiences (especially students) into actions
around social justice and cultural participation.

How did it expand to other cities ?
People have been to the Concordia events or heard about them and know
how hugely successful we are there. They then contact us and we help
them set up in their communities. They are emboldened by the Concordia
success and want to be part of a network that can hopefully breed that
kind of political cinema energy, and they get a lot of support from us
in the way of licensing costs, website support, etc.

Programming is terrific, how does it work ?
Thanks! I’ve been the programmer for five years at Concordia, and
every year I make suggestions to the 30+ locals in Canada and Europe
on films I think are excellent, but ultimately the other locals do
their own programming. As for how I select, it’s about the quality of
filmmaking, the level of commitment to the politics (ie, films that
take a stand or illustrate a stand), and diversity. I think that our
screenings have resonated with students at Concordia especially,
because every week they know they will experience cinema that is
politically, geographically, and issue-oriented diverse. We even throw
in the odd fiction feature and short to keep things interesting. I
should also mention that my partner, Svetla Turnin, plays a big part
in helping me sort out the gems we will screen from the 100+
acquisitions and submissions I go through every year.

With such an incredibly successful initiative ( when I was there, there were 400-600 people) can you not finance it with ticket sales ?
Part of the mandate of our parent organization (non-profit
überculture) is to promote the media arts to new audiences and to
ensure accessibility. We therefore have asked that none of the locals
charge admission. We do ask for donations, and raise a bit at each
screening that way. The Concordia CP also has its own funding
apparatus – a fee levy that all students pay into, amounting to 2
cents per credit and giving the series almost the budget it needs to
clear great films and bring in speakers. This kind of “collective
payment” method works wonderfully at that one local, our flagship
local, but the funds need to stay there. Funding the rest of the
network is the problem we face. Basically, for $40,000 a year as a
base minimum, we could get a phone and hire a coordinator to keep
things going. With more, we could build the biggest and most active
alternative distribution and exhibition network for documentary and
independent political cinema Canada has seen. For now, we’ve been
running the network on $5,000 per year, thanks to CitizenShift’s
ongoing support and faith in the project.

What happened with Canada Council funding ? Any explanations ?

It’s the second time we’ve been turned down. This time the jury
recommended we get funded and had comments that were all incredibly
positive. They even commented that they couldn’t believe we had
survived so long on volunteer labour!! Unfortunately the jury ranked
us so low the money in the envelope ran out by the time they got to
us. We are actually a bit shocked, as there was even an alternative
video distribution person and a doc filmmaker on the jury….We know
it’s not the Council’s fault, but I am starting to realize how
documentary is discriminated against in the media arts world when it
comes to funding. So many people told us that the jury would love us
(the grant was for organizational funding, exactly what we need) that
we kind of held our breath thinking we’d get it. We are now left with
the option of finding $30,000 to 40,000 over the summer or shutting
down the project. We are discussing a Network membership fee for
locals that would be instituted in the fall and be sliding scale. DOC
has also contacted me to have a meeting later this month, but I know
DOC is not like Toronto International Film Festival – not a lot of money to throw around. So, if
anyone has ideas or access to suitcases of cash, please contact us!
The wind is gone from our sails, but I guess we’re not sunk yet.

Thanks Ezra, keep up the good work !

Ezra also publishes aa news and resources blog and website on Canadian
independent cinema called “Canada Screens” – http://www.canadascreens.ca

Well-deserved award to Serge Giguère (with videos.)

If you are a subscriber to this blog and you receive this by e-mail, you need to go to the blog to see all video excerpts.

The other day one of our great Quebec doc makers, Serge Giguère, received one of the Governor General’s awards for creative achievement in media arts. And he deserves it ! Last year Serge and his producers at Les Films du rapide blanc released A Force de Rêve, a fantastic film about elderly people who remain passionately active, for which he received a Jutra award.

Serge has his finger on the pulse of the Quebec population, not the elites but the ‘ordinary people.’ His films look at lives lived and popular culture, but always with a strong creative twist. He is extremely close to the people he films, but at the same time he uses his imagination. In fact, his imagination seems to be triggered by incidents in the lives of his characters, or the locations, and he just takes off from there. Since he does his own camera work, his images express exactly what he saw and imagined, in a very organic whole.

Some time ago my close friend and colleague Simon Bujold and I filmed a presentation by Serge organized by the Quebec chapter of DOC. Here are a couple of excerpts, with a little english summary translation. I’m puttint the translations first for those of you who have some highschool French.

Characters is everything says, Serge in this first clip. You may have a good subject, but without the characters that doesn’t take you very far. He learnt that from the pioneers of cinema direct in Quebec, Pierre Perrault in particular.

[youtube ZBm4rYTlM1c]

In this second clip, Serge talks aboutwhat we often call a ‘mise en situation’ though he doesn’t use the term. Again referring to Perrault, he says brining people together and encouraging thm to interact can be tremendously fruitful. You don’t script what they are going to say, just make some suggestions, perhaps even pushing them a little to engage in an exchange.

[youtube ZppF4ULGKb0]

In the third and last clip, Serge talks about the imagination, and where he gets his ideas. And it’s always from the characters themselves, although he then takes liberties with them and finds ways to amplify them. For example, in his film on country singer Oscar Thiffault, he made use of a huge mock airplane. But the idea came from Oscar, who already had a smaller one around his place.

[youtube L5CzrkqGOwk]

You can find more info about Serge’s films on the web site of Rapide Blanc films which he co-founded with Sylvie van Brabant in 1984. And here’s a little background from the Governor General’s announcement.

Serge Giguère is one of Quebec's leading documentary filmmakers. Over
the course of three decades and in 11 documentaries, he has forged an
identity for documentaries in Quebec that reflects the collective
consciousness. He began his career as a cinematographer, working on
60-odd films, before becoming a critically acclaimed director. He
co-founded Les Films d'aventures sociales du Québec in 1974 and
remained a partner until 1984, when he joined Sylvie Van Brabant to
establish Les Productions du Rapide-Blanc. From 1998 to 2001, he was
filmmaker-in-residence at the National Film Board of Canada. Mr.
Giguère has sat on numerous juries and has been the recipient of many
awards, including the Prix de l'Association québécoise des critiques
de cinéma for best medium-length film of the year (1988, 1991, 1995),
a Prix Gémeaux (1992), and a Prix Jutra (2007). Hot Docs devoted a
retrospective to his work in 2006. Serge Giguère lives in
Saint-Norbert-d'Arthabaska (QC).

Blog thoughts

The Cathedeal in Siena, Tuscany, my photo.

If you are a subscriber to this blog, you might have noticed that I have been posting less frequently lately. This was not only because I was on a holiday trip in Tuscany, Italy, for two weeks. It was also because I have been thinking about what direction to take with the blog.

8 months after starting this adventure, with the help of my young friend and webmestre Kim Gjerstad, I was feeling both overextended and a little confused. Publishing twice weekly in both English and French was taking too much time, and I found myself tempted to do too much: review significant new docs, do my best help stir up debate about different issues, report on my own work – all this while maintaining good picture quality and occasionally inserting videos. Some of this activity was the result of good feedback: people seem to appreciate the blog and urge me to cover things. But it was getting out of hand and starting to get in the way of my work.

So I took advantage of my holidays to think about where to go with the blog. By serendipity I picked up a special issue of the progressive French paper Libération on fiction writers. There was an article where several writers talked about how they use their blogs – mainly as ‘carnets de bord,’ a sort of log book, a scrap book on the side, a place to talk about things that don’t necessarily fit into whatever they happen to be writing but need to be said. This brought me back to my original intent with the blog: to share my own experiences and thoughts on documentary filmmaking. So from now on I will write mainly about films I see and people in meet in the course of my regular activities, and of course about my own work. On occasion I will continue to use the blog as a tool to satisfy my own curiosity – I have enjoyed doing that and it has led to some interesting cyber-encounters.

I welcome your comments.

Socially commited docs: special issue of the Quebec magazine ‘Possibles’

André Thibault, photo by Simon Bujold

Invited by André Thibault, I recently had the opportunity to collaborate on the latest issue of the magazine ‘Possibles’ on the subject of ‘Documentary: socially committed art’. ( my translation). In this issue you will find – in french -a round table with documentary filmmakers, articles on the collective Lucioles, on Gilles Groulx, on documentary film and women, and many other subjects. In addition to participating in the round table, I contributed an interview with India’s great documentarian Anand Patwardhan and an article entitled ‘Time is on Our Side.’ I asked André Thibeault, editor in chief, a few questions about the magazine and the special issue.

Could you tell us a little bit about the magazine ‘Possibles’?

This 31 year old journal was from the very beginning a review of progressive ideas and non-conformist criticism of an ideological orthodoxy, combining essays on political, social, economical and cultural subjects summed around a specific theme each time, and fictional and poetic writings. The founders were socially committted sociologists (ex. Marcel Rioux, Gabriel Gagnon) and poets (ex. Gaston Miron, Roland Giguere). The central theme, present in all different subjects examined over the years, is that of values found in emancipation and autonomy. The magazine is distributed by Dimédia and is present in all major culturally oriented bookstores. You can also subscribe or order a copy by calling this number 514 529 1316. The web site Possibles offers the editorial and table of contents of previous issues, but isn’t interactive.

Why did you decide to publish a special issue on socially committed documentaries?

We thought that in the light of the recent revival of social movements and criticism, the documentary has emerged as a more mature art form and is now an equal and important partner to other more classical forms of mobilization and awareness rising, such as books, conferences, demonstrations. We needed to understand (and share it with our public) the specific contribution of documentary films and examine why are the creating such a craze. It was also an occasion to create bonds with different partners pursuing the same goals, but not having many opportunities to meet and even less to work together.

What did you learn while researching this issue?

First of all I became aware of the enthusiasm present in the virtual community of documentary filmmakers, this enthusiasm is as much social as it is creative. As I pointed out in my editorial, what really struck me is the strong bond between social involvement and empathy: more human emotion in the engagement and more social awareness in the exploration of the human emotion. The documentary filmmakers who stand for these tendencies don’t have a magical solution to propose and let-alone one to impose. They don’t divide the world in two categories, the all bad and the all good. Instead they reach out for the sensitive human being and the citizen present in all of us and they make us question ourselves and incorporate these ideas in a permanent and invigorated civic debate. And this by using all the artistic means to tell a story but a real one.

Impressive doc hits big screen: Up the Yangtze

I just saw the very successful Canadian-produced documentary ‘Up the Yangze’ and was very impressed. This is a first film, by a young Montreal-based director of Chinese origin, Yung Chang. It tells an epic story, with grand visuals of the transformation of the Three Gorges and the Yangze river valley, but it tells it through a touching and closely filmed story mainly of one family. They are poor uneducated farmers, and they cultivate a small plot of land by the river. As the plans for damming the river move ahead, they know their land will be flooded and they will be displaced along with 2 million other people. Unable to pay for her education, they send their oldest daughter to get a job on a tourist tour boat which travels up the river to the dam, in the final stages of construction. This provides terrific opportunities for showing the encounter of two worlds, and for cutting back and forth between the obsequious tour guides who are prepared to say anything to please the authorities and make a buck, and the struggling farm family for whom this whole development is a disaster. The filmmakers mine this rich vein for all it’s worth, to great effect. The numerous ironies and the poignancy of the situation steers the film away from any kind of simplistic analysis. And far from romanticising the old ways, they contrast the hardships of the age-old poverty with the glitter of a new shamelessly promotional commercialism. Through the story of one family you get a portrait of all of China and its dilemmas, economic, environmental, human. It’s also beautifuly filmed and edited. What an accomplishment ! I encourage you to go and see this film on the big screen, we need to show that there’s a place for theatrical screenings of docs.

My assistant Steven Ladouceur added the following information and links – apologies for the repetition.

This Friday February 22nd opens the Montreal screenings of Yung Chang’s highly acclaimed first feature-length documentary film, Up the Yangtze, at the AMC Forum. The Mirror says viewing this film is “one of those experiences that reinvigorates and restores your faith in the documentary film medium.” Chang graduated from Concordia University’s Film Production programme and his latest achievement stems from a “surreal” journey with his family to China in 2002. One year later, Chang was receiving support from EyeSteelFilm productions through former professor Daniel Cross and then the National Film Board. After developing and refining the project throughout 2004 and 2005, the film was mainly shot in 2006 and post-production ended in July of 2007. From it’s inception Up the Yangtze has been receiving awards and is continuing to do so now more then ever as it is breaking box office records.

A precious resource: Lois Siegel’s website

Model by Frederick Wiseman

A month ago I talked about several lists of ‘best documentaries’ on this blog, and seem to have started quite a discussion. Good, because these lists – all of course subjective – need to be discussed. And as always when you do something you learn someting, One of the many resources brought to my attention over the last few weeks is Lois Siegel’s terrific web site, which includes a list of documentaries. Lois has no particular pretensions with her list, but it’s one good source for people looking for good docs. I spoke to Lois about it:

How did you come to start your list ?

The Documentary Film List is part of my website Film Fanatics. The site has all kinds of information on it: acting, animation, documentary films, feature films, filmmakers, funding, history, screenwriting, schools…anything that I think might be of interest to someone and it serves as a good reference for me. and my video students at the University of Ottawa also have access to it and young filmmakers I mentor.

What are your criteria for including a film?

When I see films that I like, I often add them to the list. I haven’t had time to add every film I like to the list. I add a bit at a time. I have a list of almost 200 films that I used to show in my classes at John Abbott College, and now at the University of Ottawa. I still have to add films that appear on my Documentary Filmmakers site. This is a work in progress. I need more hours in a day. I’m working as a freelance photographer, a musician and I teach, so my time is limited.

Sometimes the films I like reflect my personal interests… e.g. “Model” by Frederick Wiseman. I really like this film… I’m a photographer, so this film interests me, and I’m a filmmaker, and there’s a section on filming a commercial in Wiseman’s production. I also like his film “The Store” because I grew up in department stores. My father owned them. Other people wouldn’t see this film the same way I see it because of my background.

We bring to films who we are, how we see the world, and what we understand about it. No two people have the same background. I like films about chess players because I played chess as a child. If you didn’t, then these films might bore you.

I have over 1000 pages on my main website now. I have many interests. and I work on the pages a bit every day.

Lois Siegel

Do you try to find all films that correspond to your criteria, or you just go with films you happen to see ?

I include films I see, but I’m always looking for interesting films. I view films all the time. And I went to the Montreal World Film Festival for years. As a filmmaker, I wanted to see as many films as possible. When I worked at The National Film Board, I used to take 16mm films home to screen all the time, then it was VHS tapes. Now I borrow films from the Ottawa Public Library and the University of Ottawa library (VHS, DVD).

Teaching allows me to see films I might not otherwise have access to. I can request films for purchase or for viewing. I also see films at the Bytowne Cinema – press screenings, because I write reviews for my website and for The Glebe Report (Ottawa).

Your site attracts a lot of traffic, do you know who visits?

My complex of web pages attracts 55,000 hits a day (not just the documentary page).

People from all over the world visit my site. Last October there were 1.5 million hits.

Launching the Granny Power fundraising campaign

Raging Grannies at their last Unconvention. Photo Simon Bujold.

For the last three years I have been working on a film about the Raging Grannies. This film is about a Canadian movement which has become international. It’s about using humour to fight for peace, social justice and the environment. It’s about learning how to grow old and remain an active citizen. It’s about a voice in society for older women. We have a French-language broadcaster but there is little interest among English-language ones. That’s why we – our producers at Island Filmworks and our team – are launching a private fundraising drive. We want to collect some of the money needed for the film, and we want to build momentum.

My desire to make a film about the Raging Grannies stems from many years of seeing these wonderful and inspiring women in action, at rallies and demonstrations for peace, environmental protection and social justice. The theme that runs through all my work is that of people standing up for their rights. And whenever there’s a David fighting a Goliath, the Grannies are never far away! I even remember seeing them singing, one of them in a wheelchair, against the background of clouds of teargas at the Quebec City Summit of the Americas.

Over the last three years I have been privileged to meet and get to know Raging Grannies across Canada and the U.S., including the founding Grannies in Victoria B.C. I filmed their 20th anniversary celebrations (see my previous post on the Victoria Grannies shoot), as well as several other events we didn’t want to miss – the arrest and trial of 20 grannies arrested for their anti-war protests in New York was one of them. It was a little unfortunate that so much of the travel and other expenses had to be charged to our credit cards – but the footage is in the can, that’s what counts.

And here is a short video which gives you an idea of what kind of situations you might find in the film:
[youtube 8yDj098xCGE]

I have the privilege of working with some veteran filmmakers who are also good friends on this project, Martin Duckworth, Carole Roy and Terre Nash among them. It seems all the conditions are there for making a great film. My personal hope is that we will succeed in doing just what those wonderful Grannies do: use humor, irony and creativity to entertain an audience while making it think about important issues.

One of our main characters, Muriel Duckworth, is now preparing to celebrate her 99th birthday. The founding Grannies in Victoria are still active but frail as they celebrate the 20th anniversary of the movement. It is high time to make this film. If the broadcasters won’t support us, we’re convinced the public will.

I am fortunate to have an excellent coordinator for the fundraising campaign, Dijana Lazar. I’ll let her tell you how it is organized:

We have decided to launch a private on-line fundraising campaign to help finance the Granny Power project, using an internet fundraising platform called GiveMeaning.Com

With the help of a Montreal based NGO called Alternatives and our interns from Montreal and Toronto, we are aiming to raise 25000$ to kick start the project and prove we have popular support. We need your help to achieve that!

You can contribute to this campaign in many ways : by voting for our project (voting process lasts for another week), by supporting it financially (fundraising starts on February 12th and all donations over 5$ are tax deductible), by spreading the word amongst your friends and contacts, by posting a link for our web page on your blog or web site…
Your support will be greatly appreciated!

Please visit our web page on GiveMeaning : Granny Power project

And our web site for the Granny Power film

Thank you!