Cinema Politica is proud to launch Documentary Futurism—The Podcast, a new audio series that gives listeners a unique insight into the dynamic and engaged filmmaking process of visionary filmmakers creating work to usher a new cinematic genre called “documentary futurism” as part of CP’s The Next 150: Documentary Futurism project.
The first two episodes feature interviews with award-winning artists Nalo Hopkinson, Skawennati, Danis Goulet (who are also the esteemed jurors for the project), Cinema Politica’s Co-founder and Director of Programming Ezra Winton, Black Speculative Arts Movement Canada co-ordinator Quentin Vercetty, Julia Dyck of The XX Files and AbTech co-founder Jason Lewis. The series will be hosted by James Goddard, artist, futurist, activist & Project Coordinator of The Next 150: Documentary Futurism.
The purpose of the podcast is to give listeners a unique insight into the filmmaking processes from visionary filmmakers in the midst of their productions, as well as to provide timely conversations about the role speculative arts play for communities commonly under-represented on and off screen in mainstream film and media.
Documentary Futurism—The Podcast explores some of the foundational ideas behind The Next 150: Documentary Futurism project, including afro-futurism, Indigenous futurism, and the interplay between truth-telling and imagination in documentary filmmaking.
The episodes will feature conversations with the amazing filmmakers producing the inaugural collection of documentary futurism works, including Brishkay Ahmed, Bretten Hannam, Andrew Chiu, Mylène Augustin & Feven Ghebremariam, Taina Da Silva & Becca Redden, Jeremy Sandor, Marwen Tlili & Quentin Ducados, Roxann Whitebean, Mariam Zaidi, Andréanne Germain, tobias c. van Veen & ZiggZaggerZ the BASTARD a.k.a Shannon Theus, Roberto Santaguida, Lari Jalbert, Thirza Jean Cuthand, and Andrés Salas.
Documentary Futurism—The Podcast will be available at The Next 150: Documentary Futurism website and on iTunes. Episodes will be released every 3 weeks from April 11 until September 15, 2018.
The Next 150: Documentary Futurism is Cinema Politica’s first foray into commissioning works. The project launched in September 2017 with a call for proposals specifically reaching out to Indigenous, Black and Racialized, Women and Queer Identifying, Disabled, and Newly Arrived Migrant and Refugee artists. The 15 film projects, which were selected by a jury of experts on film and futurisms, are set to be completed in the summer of 2018 and released at festivals and special screenings across the country in the fall of 2018. Inspired by afro-futurism, Indigenous Futurism, speculative fiction and non-fiction, documentary futurism will combine, by way of adherence or infidelity, the codes of documentary filmmaking with the imaginaries of futurism and speculation in order to represent a future Canada.
The Next 150: Documentary Futurism is one of the 200 exceptional projects funded through the Canada Council for the Arts’ New Chapter program. With this $35M investment, the Council supports the creation and sharing of the arts in communities across Canada.
