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Planet in Focus Environmental Film Festival. Oct. 20 - 25.

Barri Cohen

Barri Cohen is an award-winning doc filmmaker and tv producer, who executive produced and story edited more than 100 hours of documentary and reality TV series.

Filmmaker Shelley Saywell sits on stone steps in a garden. She is a white woman with shoulder-length blond hair. She is wearing a black shirt and blue jeans, and is looking directly at the camera.
July 21, 2026
Features/Interviews

Shelley Saywell Reflects on Love and Mortality

Shelley Saywell looks back at her career in documentary and a formative love story that helped fuel her passion in her memoir If Only Love.

Read More
A series of white pieces of paper taped to a wall. They have the NFB logo in the top right corner and various messages scribbled in black marker.
Hot Docs/Industry

Hot Docs Industry Report: Day 2 – Forum Returns, Brazil Docs, NFB Corner

Hot Docs Industry Day 2 featured a return of the Forum, the Made in Brazil spotlight on national cinema, and notes about what the industry hopes to see in the future.

Hot Docs Industry Report: Day 1 – Re-imagining Distribution and Independent Filmmaking

2026 Hot Docs Industry Conference Report: Day One - panellists discuss alternatives

Director/producer Ric Esther Bienstock at Cornell protest encampment with DOP Elad Winkler, 024

Oh! The Misery and the Joy! A Conversation with Ric Esther Bienstock

Veteran director/producer Ric Esther Bienstock reflects upon a career in documentary, from

Policy Matters: “The Future of Television Will Not be Televised”

by Barri Cohen
July 3, 2014
Industry

The landscape for documentary funding is mighty parched and could use the infusion of potential new players—even Netflix.

Keep Reading

Policy Matters: “Let’s Talk TV”….in Canada?

by Barri Cohen
November 28, 2013
Industry

How do we figure out new rules with a policy framework that still has Canadian culture and cultural job protection in the mix?

Keep Reading

Policy Matters: The Five Percent Problem

by Barri Cohen
October 18, 2013
Industry

Unless the CRTC can be persuaded by powerful lobby groups, we won’t get the chance to revisit program categories and this group licencing regime until 2014.

Keep Reading

Policy Matters: Requiem for ‘Independents’?

by Barri Cohen
June 13, 2013
Industry

Canadian broadcasters are forced into making promises they’ll inevitably break, and find themselves dealing with pesky independent producers.

Keep Reading

Policy Matters: A ray of (Star)light

by Barri Cohen
March 26, 2013
Industry

Starlight: The Canadian Movie Channel, helmed by Norm Bolen and backed Robert Lantos, could really help Canadian creators and audiences.

Keep Reading

The Open Hearts of the Red Queens

by Barri Cohen
February 26, 2013
Interviews

An interview with Maya Gallus and Justine Pimlott on their work with Red Queen Productions with docs like Dish, Hot Rollers and Girl Inside.

Keep Reading

Policy Matters: Miracle in Ottawa

by Barri Cohen
November 20, 2012
Industry

The CRTC gave a resounding and historic 'no' to Bell's bid to acquire Astral Media. What does that mean for the Canadian landscape?

Keep Reading

Policy Matters: A Perfect Storm

by Barri Cohen
September 12, 2012
Industry

"Ever since Bell Media announced its $3.38-billion purchase (subject to regulatory approval) of Astral Media, I’ve been worried," notes our policy columnist.

Keep Reading

Policy Matters: Colour Me Blue

by Barri Cohen
April 2, 2012
Industry

With Harper’s new federal austerity budget we are subjected to attacks on things like seniors, the environment, public health and—what a cliché—arts and culture.

Keep Reading

Policy Matters: Deadliest Catch Fever

by Barri Cohen
February 1, 2012
Industry

Look to any bazaar or marketplace and you’ll find peddlers carefully jostling in hierarchical ways, where the louder, noisier and bigger characters get the lion’s share of attention.

Keep Reading
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Prime Minster Brian Mulroney appears in a fantastical image. He is pictured from the waist up wearing a flamboyant Liberace-style coat. There is a dazzling background behind him with campaign signs. He looks pale and a bit like a vampire.

CURRENT ISSUE

Issue 126: Fall/Winter 2026

Ladies and Gentlemen, Brian Mulroney is Matthew Rankin's irreverent docufantasia about Canada's 18th PM.

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#TheWindsThirst at @planetinfocus with director Al #TheWindsThirst at @planetinfocus with director Alejandro Valbuena Zooming in. Powerful! 💨

📽 #PIF2026 runs all weekend. 

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So go, Canada. Whoo! Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppe So go, Canada. Whoo! Nathan Fielder and Lance Oppenheim in Toronto for a wild screening of @youcanseeeverything 👀

Lots of talk in the Q&A (no recording allowed in that part) about great Canadian influences, like Allan King, Sarah Polley, and Guy Maddin, plus what happens when you go into a film thinking it won't work out. Turns out, it did!

📽 You Can See Everything is now in theatres

🔗 Review link in bio 👍👍

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But will Oscar voters see everything? 🗳 From the But will Oscar voters see everything? 🗳

From the traditionalists of the documentary branch to a process stacked against documentaries, we look at how #YouCanSeeEverything could make Irshad history. 

🔗 link in bio. 

#Oscars #movies #elizabethholmes #NathanFielder
Are docs about the North canaries in the coal mine Are docs about the North canaries in the coal mine? 🐻‍❄

@gesila.lightplaysociety looks at how documentaries like @nuisance_bear_film, The Last Ice,  and Angry Inuk spotlight concerns if climate change and geopolitics across borders. 

📖 Issue 125

🔗 Now online! Link in bio. 

#thenorth #movies #environment #nuisancebear #inuit
Seeing is believing, right? Right? 👀 The hype is Seeing is believing, right? Right? 👀

The hype is real! @youcanseeeverything is one of the year's best films. 

🔗 Review link in bio. 

📽 Now playing in theatres. 

#moviereview #youcanseeeverything #movies #nathanfielder #elizabethholmes
From inspiring maverick to global supervillain, #M From inspiring maverick to global supervillain, #Musk charts the alarming rise of the world's most powerful man. 🚀

Read more about Musk and how Alex Gibney distilled all that's corrupt and evil about the man into a five-alarm wakeup call. 

🔗 link in bio

📽  Musk opens in theatres Oct. 16.

#alexgibney #documentary #movies #elonmusk
Smarter than the average bear! 🐻‍❄ Get your first Smarter than the average bear! 🐻‍❄

Get your first look at the trailer for Sundance winner @nuisance_bear_film ahead of its theatrical release.

🔗 link in bio

📽 opens @planetinfocus, screens at @windsorfilmfest & @hotdocs_' Doc Soup; opens in select Cdn theatres Dec. 4. Coming soon to @mubicanada.

#trailers #Documentary #bears #movies
@jess_earnshaw's family viewing: with JACINTA and @jess_earnshaw's family viewing: with JACINTA and now @babydoefilm, the director is developing a fine eye for complicated and nuanced family stories.

@liamlaceywriter profiles an emerging talent. 

📖 POV 125

🔗 link in bio

📽 Baby Doe is now on VOD; Jacinta is in Disney+

#Film #filmmaking #movies #babydoe #documentary
The Marathon of Hope continues. 🏃‍♂️ #RunTerryRun The Marathon of Hope continues. 🏃‍♂️

#RunTerryRun opens across Canada today. Our critics say it's a slice of our history that never ceases to inspire. 

📖 read more in issue 126

🔗 review at povmagazine.com 

📽 in theatres across Canada. 

#terryfox #moviereview #Canada #dailyinspiration
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Two South Korean women sit and conduct an interview. The woman on the left is wearing a white shirt and faces the camera, and the woman on the right wears a green shirt and sits beside the camera while asking questions. There is a film crew behind her, and a man stands between them in the background observing the interview. They are in a backyard and the sun is setting.

Possible Love Review: Class Seen through the Documentary Lens

October 23, 2026
A team of doctors performs a surgery around an operating table.

Cinema Eye Honors Announce Unforgettables, Audience Award Longlist

October 22, 2026
A collage of film stills.

Festober Cometh: Doc Highlights on the Circuit

October 20, 2026
Elizabeth Holmes stands in front of an elaborate set-up of cameras

Could You Can See Everything Make Oscar History for Documentary?

October 19, 2026
A polar bear lies spreadeagle on the ground, sedated, with a large patch of green dye on its back. The bear looks directly into the camera.

Geopolitics and Ecology Heat Up the North

October 19, 2026

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Prime Minster Brian Mulroney appears in a fantastical image. He is pictured from the waist up wearing a flamboyant Liberace-style coat. There is a dazzling background behind him with campaign signs. He looks pale and a bit like a vampire.

CURRENT ISSUE

Issue 126: Fall/Winter 2026

Ladies and Gentlemen, Brian Mulroney is Matthew Rankin's irreverent docufantasia about Canada's 18th PM.

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