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The National Film Board’s (NFB’s) Toronto Mediatheque is partnering with Social Housing Services Corporation (SHSC), Pathways to Education and Toronto Community Housing for ‘Reel Flicks,’ a 12 week project culminating in five short documentaries made by youth in the Lawrence Heights area. This week Merrill Matthews from the NFB blogs on the importance of documentary filmmaking.
Get video/text updates on Reel Flicks as the project unfolds:
The NFB and Documentary Filmmaking
Documentary filmmaking is deeply connected to the history of filmmaking in Canada. In fact the term “documentary” was coined by filmmaker John Grierson, the first film commissioner for the NFB. His definition is “the creative treatment of actuality” – a definition that still rings true.
From its beginnings with John Grierson as commissioner, the NFB has sought to make films that “reflect Canada to Canadians and to the rest of the world.” As early as the Challenge for Change program in the 1960s, the NFB has helped share the stories of communities as varied as those in The Children of Fogo, The Things I Can Not Change and Invisible City. The more recent work of NFB filmmaker Katerina Cizek also bespeaks this commitment with her Street Health Stories and The Interventionists and as well as her current Highrise/Out My Window interactive project.
NFB and Reel Flicks
Today, documentary filmmaking has become more accessible due to the availability and equipment and software. This has empowered those who did not previously have the economic means to create films and tell their stories.
With Reel Flicks, NFB Mediatheque workshop facilitators Amery Martin and Michele Tredger is supporting this empowerment by guiding 12 youth through the production of five documentaries on their experience in social housing communities. Workshops on the technical and story aspects of filmmaking are currently underway. Perhaps a new NFB voice will be borne by the end of this experience!
The Pitching Session
Here’s a video of Christopher “Junior” Riley, one of youth involved in this project, pitches to us his awesome documentary idea.
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