POV‘s modest newsroom is working overtime to get our next issue out by year-end. Our upcoming Winter 2023 issue–our 120th edition!–is a special one. This issue celebrates the 40th anniversary of our founding body the Documentary Organization of Canada (DOC). Through new interviews with members, key players, and figures in the documentary community, this issue looks back at four decades of DOC advocacy.
Highlights in the issue include a comprehensive timeline of the organization. From its inception as the Canadian Independent Film Caucus in 1983 to the renaming as DOC on its 20th anniversary to present, we chart the growth of the organization and its milestones. Among the highlights in DOC’s advocacy for Canadian independent filmmakers are its fight to get them a slice of the funding pie, space among broadcasters, consideration among Telefilm Canada’s performance envelopes, and, most recently, equitable representation for BIPOC creatives.
This issue also checks in with members from all chapters to take stock of the state of documentary from coast to coast. Filmmakers from British Columbia to the Maritimes feel the pinch in a new state of documentary production that sees fewer feature docs getting the greenlight. But these members draw on their experiences and the community spirit that DOC fosters to find reasons to be optimistic about making documentaries in Canada. We also look at what’s happening in the documentary sphere as documentary filmmakers harness the power of impact campaigns in order to maximize their documentary’s calls to action, while filmmakers exploring poetic variations on non-fiction form inspire new ways of conceiving documentary. We also check in with DOC’s big success story–the creation of Hot Docs–and learn how the festival puts advocacy into action by transforming the landscape for documentaries worldwide.
Subscribe today to get this issue direct from the printer. This issue offers an essential snapshot of Canada’s history of documentary told through the perspectives of DOC members championing change in the community.
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POV would like to thank the Canada Periodical Fund for their support of this special issue through the Business Innovation Fund.
