Challenge for Change: Activist Documentary at the NFB
How has documentary cinema changed Canadian society over the past forty years or so? Challenge for Change/Société nouvelle was an ambitious bilingual initiative that brought together the unlikely partners of government bureaucrats, documentary filmmakers, community activists and ordinary citizens. The National Film Board of Canada (NFB) and several other government agencies launched the program in 1967, with the primary goal of addressing social dilemmas such as poverty, sexism and marginalization in Canada through the production and dissemination of documentary cinema. To launch their anthology of contemporary essays about this pivotal program, Challenge For Change: Activist Documentary at the National Film Board of Canada (McGill-Queens University Press), noted film scholars and co-editors Thomas Waugh, Michael Baker and Ezra Winton will participate in a discussion following screenings. Marc Glassman, Editor of Montage and POV Magazines and Executive Director of This Is Not A Reading Series (TINARS), will host the evening.
An event presented by the National Film Board of Canada, in partnership with TINARS, McGill-Queen's University Press, Cinema Politica and Concordia's School of Cinema and Faculty of Fine Arts.
Challenge for Change: Activist Documentary at the National Film Board of Canada - The National Film Board of Canada(NFB) is one of the world's premier centres for documentary filmmaking and has consistently received attention and acclaim, both internationally and at home. One particularly influential area of the NFB's great body of works was the bilingual, activist documentary program Challenge for Change/Societe nouvelle, which ran from 1967 to 1980. The films produced within this program were among the first to use 16mm and portable video to enable audiences to confront broad issues of sexism, poverty, and marginalization in the hope of developing community, political awareness, and empowerment. Pioneering participatory, social change-oriented media, the program had a national and international impact on documentary filmmaking, 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, Quebecois, 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.
“Challenge for Change seamlessly integrates the history of this classic National Film Board program with present day initiatives. It sets the stage for further exploration on the subject and deals comprehensively with the complex interrelation of English and French production. The first of its kind, this book is ambitious, accessible, and superbly informed.”
Darrell Varga, Division of Historical and Critical Studies, Nova Scotia College of Art and Design University
Thomas Waugh is professor in the Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema at Concordia University. He is the author of The Romance of Transgression in Canada: Queering Sexualities, Nations, Cinemas.
Michael Brendan Baker is a PhD candidate in the Department of Art History and Communication Studies at McGill University.
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.
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Media & Info Contacts
National Film Board: Jacques Viau, j.viau@nfb.ca, (416) 973-3012
This Is Not A Reading Series: Chris Reed, coordinator@tinars.ca
