Challenge for Change

Activist Documentary at the National Film Board of Canada

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by Thomas Waugh, Michael Brendan Baker, Ezra Winton and Michael Brendan Baker

Type

Studies

Subject

Genre > Documentary

Keywords

documentary, radical, Canada, social aspects

Publishing date

2010

Publisher

McGill-Queen's University Press

Language

English

Relative size

Physical desc.

Hardcover • 574 pages
6 ¾ x 9 ¾ inches (17 x 25 cm)

ISBN

978-0-7735-3662-3

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Book Presentation:
The activist documentary program Challenge for Change/Société nouvelle, which ran from 1967 to 1980 and produced films in both French and English, stands out as a particularly influential and original part of the National Film Board of Canada's critically acclaimed body of work. The films produced by this program were among the first to add portable video to the tested arsenal of 16mm, and challenged audiences, subjects, and filmmakers to confront sexism, poverty, and marginalization in the hope of developing community as well as political awareness and empowerment.

Pioneering participatory, social change-oriented media, the program had a national and international impact on documentary film-making, yet this is the first comprehensive history and analysis of its work. The volume's contributors study dozens of films produced by the program, their themes, aesthetics, and politics, and evaluate their legacy and the program's place in Canadian, Québécois, and world cinema. An informative and nuanced look at a cinematic movement, Challenge for Change reemphasizes not just the importance of the NFB and its programs but also the role documentaries can play in improving the world.

About the authors:
Thomas Waugh, professor in the Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema at Concordia University, is the author of The Romance of Transgression in Canada: Queering Sexualities, Nations, Cinemas. Michael Brendan Baker is Professor of Film Studies in the Faculty of Humanities & Social Sciences at Sheridan College. Ezra Winton is a PhD candidate in the Department of Journalism and Communication Studies at Carleton University and the founder of the Cinema Politca Network.

See the publisher website: McGill-Queen's University Press