The Spaces Between Grassroots Documentary ... - Ezra Winton

film industry, while texts that begin from an affirmative position are fewer, and indeed
they may be correct in surmising that this positioning around the issues may actually
contribute to the problems many texts seek to resolve.
George Melnyck considers film studies scholars “intermediaries between film and
its audience” but sees this role not as interventionist, but rather reflective, as “after-the-
fact intermediaries” when compared to lawyers, bureaucrats, funders, distributors, etc.
(Melnyck, 2004, p.245) This proclamation effectively renders scholars of Canadian film
and film policy passive interlocutors, rather than active participants with an assertive
stance capable of contributing to change. In this chapter I describe initiatives that are
building alternatives to Canada’s commercial cinema distribution and exhibition industry
in an attempt to address a larger discursive problem space that I have discussed in the
previous chapters. By investigating Canadian sites of grassroots d/e, an argumentation
that not only identifies problems, but also asserts a positive position for solutions may be
granted the space to develop. The sites visited here present real challenges to hegemony,
that is to say, real grassroots alternatives that are oriented around community spaces and
practices that build counterpublics and play important roles in the building of democratic
spaces that often run counter to dominant (cinematic) cultural flows and “common sense”
(Peet, 2002, p.56) tendencies in Canadian society.
I will begin by positioning myself within this field of inquiry with a description of
Cinema Politica – an international network of distribution and exhibition of political
cinema predominantly operating in Canada – which I founded, organize and continue to
curate. I will discuss other community-oriented sites that can be seen as responsive
constructions of media dissemination and community-building in a climate of rampant
93