From time to time Cinema Politica publishes pamphlets, booklets, and more recently, a real, physical, bonafide BOOK. We realize that we’re getting into the business at the worst time possible, but hey, we’re also showing films in material social spaces when everyone else seems to be focused on putting it all on the web. We love to go against the grain. And we love print. We love ink on paper so much that in the Spring of 2014 we are publishing the first Cinema Politcia reader, a collection of work by members of our doc-community to mark ten years of screening political documentaries throughout the Cinema Politica Network.The book is called Screening Truth to Power: A Reader on Documentary Activism, and can be purchased right here, or comes as a gift when you become a sustainer or make a one-time donation.
ABOUT THE BOOK
Screening Truth to Power: A Reader on Documentary Activism is is a reflection on ten years of activities of the documentary screening non-profit Cinema Politica. Marking a transformative and inspiring decade of connecting audiences, artists and activists through provocative political film and video, Cinema Politica brings together diverse voices in this collection of essays, interviews, impressions and specially curated ‘favourite docs’ lists.
With analyses from filmmakers and academics like Shannon Walsh and Darrell Varga, and film and media scholars like Thomas Waugh and John Downing, lists of political documentary favourites from Kim Longinotto, John Greyson, Karen Cho and N’gend Mukii, among others, as well as reflections from a host of other docuphiles, doc critics and doc-theorists, Screening Truth to Poweris an eclectic and original contribution to literature on the genre.
This collection also reflects the mandate of Cinema Politica to seize upon documentary’s transformational potential in order to advance progressive socio-political and ecological change. As such, the firebrand texts between these covers promises to engage, inspire, and activate.
Download the book’s information one-sheet here.
Order a copy of Screening Truth to Power: A Reader on Documentary Activism by clicking on this link.
OOTHER DOWNLOADABLE CP PUBLICATIONS
LAUNCHES & FINE INDY BOOK SELLERS
Here are some of the places you can find Screening Truth to Power being flogged by the editors, or, better yet, by some of our committed independent booksellers across the lands:
BOOK LAUNCHES
Montreal — April 9, Concordia University, more here.
Toronto — April 27, Mark and Siobhan’s
Montreal — May 24 & 25, Montreal Anarchist Bookfair, link here.
Fredericton — June 5, Conserver House, more here.
Halifax — June 12, NSCAD University, more here.
Ottawa — Friday August 22nd, People’s Social Forum, more here.
BOOK SELLERS
Montreal — Concordia Community Coop Solidarity Bookstore, La Boite Noire, Librairie L’Insoumise, Drawn and Quarterly, Argo Bookshop.
Toronto — TIFF Shop, York University Bookstore, Bloor Cinema
Ottawa — Octopus Books.
Halifax – Bookmark Bookstore.
Do you want to sell our book or invite us for a book launch? We’d love that! To make arrangements send us an email us at: bookorders AT cinemapolitica DOT org.
ENDORSEMENTS
“This book should be required reading for anyone interested in cinema and social change. The contributions are as diverse and colourful as the film culture they come from, with the authors nonetheless united in their commitment to using film in the struggle for a more democratic, just, and sustainable society. Refreshingly absent of the pro-market, liberal-humanist rhetoric surrounding ‘socially engaged’ documentary elsewhere, the essays, texts, interviews and unruly lists of film top-tens that comprise this book constitute clear-sighted anti-capitalism in all its multifarious forms. Written and edited by some of the most prominent filmmakers, scholars, programmers and activists today, this practical, theoretically informed, straight-talking handbook is a valuable contribution to committed film culture. Here’s to another ten years of Cinema Politica. Viva!”
-Steve Presence, PHD, University of the West of England
MEDIA COVERAGE & REVIEWS
+ Screening Truth to Power: A Reader on Documentary Activism, Art Threat, 7 March 2015.
+ Cinema Politica Tours First Book with Film Screening, June 2014.
+ Hot off the Presses: Getting to know Cinema Politica, Montreal Rampage, 3 May 2014.
+ “Screening Truth to Power – A Reader on Documentary Activism,” Audio interview with co-editor Ezra Winton by Wojtek Gwiazda, Radio Canada International.
+ “Q&A: Cinema Politica’s Ezra Winton on launching a self-published book,” Julie Baldassi, Quill & Quire.
+ “It’s Cinema Politica, the book,” Kayla Marie Hillier, Cult Montreal.
BOOK CREDITS
Pictured above, left to right at the Montreal book launch: Co-editor Svetla Turnin, contributor John Greyson, contributor and CP Board Member Thomas Waugh, and co-editor Ezra Winton. Image credit: Mimi Zhou.
Edited by Svetla Turnin and Ezra Winton
Designed by Kevin Yuen Kit Lo and Kimberly Tsui
Printed by KataSoho in Montreal, Quebec, unceded Mohawk territory
TABLE OF CONTENTS
009 Acknowledgements
013 Illuminating the Crimes of the Powerful, a Foreword by John Downing
017 Introduction: Encounters with Documentary Activism by Svetla Turnin and Ezra Winton
029 Dox Vox Mixtape: How to Make an Anarchist’s List of “Best” “Political” Docs by
Sean Farnel
035 The Process of Place: Grassroots Documentary Screenings by Liz Miller and Thomas Waugh
045 Speak for Yourself: The Cultural Politics of Participatory Video by Shannon Walsh
057 We Aren’t Sorry for This Interruption… by Steve James
061 Dox Vox Mixtape: Our Favourite Queer Docs by Shohini Ghosh, John Greyson and Thomas Waugh
067 Quels peuvent être les impacts sociaux du documentaire ? Parole à 10 réalisatrices et réalisateurs by Inês Lopes
085 Dox Vox Mixtape: Essentiels films québécois
by Richard Brouillette
089 Identity and Resistance: An Interview with Abenaki Filmmaker Alanis Obomsawin by Ezra Winton
097 Dox Vox Mixtape: Aboriginal Politics and Culture on Screen by Tracey Deer and Tasha Hubbard
105 A Conceptual Intervention in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside: An Interview with Antoine Bourges
by Ezra Winton
113 Dox Vox Mixtape: ArtDox
by The Hive
121 Unforgettable Films, Remarkable People, Outrage and Hope at Cinema Politica Fredericton
by Tracy Glynn
125 Dox Vox Mixtape: Latin American Films
by Elizabeth Miller and Luciana Kaplan
129 Anarchist Cinema
by Franklin López
133 Dox Vox Mixtape: Anarchist Films by
Franklin López
139 A Democratic Screening Space
by Stefan Christoff
145 Capturing a Militant (on Screen): An Interview with Lina Makboul by Stefan Christoff
157 Dox Vox Mixtape: Outstanding Feminist Docs
by Karen Cho, Pepita Ferrari and Kim Longinotto
163 A Doc-World in the Making by Jocelyne Clarke
169 Documentary Disasters and Screening Serendipity: Ten Memorable Cinema Politica Moments Between 2003 and 2013 by
Matthew Hays
175 Dox Vox Mixtape: Eco-Docs
by The Hive
179 Grassroots Across Borders by
Kristen Fitzpatrick
183 Dox Vox Mixtape: African Docs by
Ng’endo Mukii
189 Documentary and Actually Existing Utopias
by Darrell Varga
202 Bios: Contributors, Collaborators & Accomplices
209 Illustrations
213 About Cinema Politica
