The Spaces Between Grassroots Documentary ... - Ezra Winton

of the national newspaper occupies just the sort of space that I have come to expect of
writing on the documentary genre in Canada: a feel-good romp through the success
stories of box office documentary hits, peppered with “docophile” celebrities, flashy
festivals, Michael Moore, and The Corporation; in short, a good Saturday afternoon read.
Like so much of the academic and popular writings alike, his article neglects to dig
deeper, beyond production news and box office numbers. There is one instance in the
piece, however, where the shadowy parts of documentary cinema, the parts this thesis
investigates, seem nearer to exposure. This moment comes when Lacey is speaking to
Sean Farnel, the programming director of Hot Docs, North America’s premiere
documentary film festival and industry marketplace held ever year in Toronto, who says:
“Documentary has become a kind of new space in the culture.” (Ibid) This thesis argues
that documentary ‘spaces’ are integral to understanding cultural aspects of Canada’s
publics, and those spaces are the neglected territory of grassroots distribution and
exhibition of documentary cinema.
Popular rhetoric suggests there is a revolution of democratic opportunity
springing forth from the wells of technology and human experience. Filmmaker,
documentary advocate and writer Peter Wintonick seems to champion this position: “We
are now living in the ‘hear and now’ of an evolutionary wave, the digital revolution,
where everyone, literally, can become a filmmaker.” (Wintonick, 2006) But Alan
Rosenthal tempers this fervour, reminding us: “Documentaries don’t just appear out of
the blue. They are a media product and often take years to produce, and even then only
come to birth because of the dreams, energy, sweat, doggedness and perseverance of the
filmmaker. I think this is too often forgotten by critics and academics.” (Rosenthal, 2005,
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