The DOC Institute announced the second annual DOC Institute Honours Award Winners last night and POV is proud to share the news that editor Marc Glassman was among the honourees. Glassman received the Rogers-DOC Luminary Award for his longtime support of documentary film as a writer, editor, programmer, teacher, and all-around cultural impresario. The Rogers-DOC Luminary Award, supported by the Rogers Group of Funds, was presented to Glassman as an individual who embodies the creative spirit of the Canadian documentary tradition and supports the next generation of doc-makers through mentorship.
DOC board member Ric Esther Bienstock and POV board member Michael McNamara of Markham Street Films presented the award to Glassman at the awards ceremony held Thursday night at the Gladstone Hotel in Toronto. Both presenters praised Glassman as an “unsung hero” of the doc community who has nurtured the doc community with his coverage, support, and insight of the field for over thirty years.
“It’s nice to work behind the scenes,” said Glassman while humbly receiving the award. Glassman began by recalling his longtime work at his former bookstore, Pages, which served as a meeting place and gathering point that helped shape his role in the community. Glassman and noted that it felt especially significant to receive the honour while the one-hundredth issue of POV is hitting the stands. “Few magazines get to one-hundred,” Glassman remarked on the magazine’s major milestone and its role with the doc community. Glassman added that POV, like all publications nowadays, is at a point of flux and change, but the challenges of changes to media offer more inspiration for doc filmmakers to be just as relevant and just as strong. “We’re the conscience of Canada,” he said while likening documentary filmmaking to a kind of truth telling that Canadian culture needs.
Glassman also thanked his current and former POV peers for their support and dedication to documentary. He had special praise for POV contributing editor Barri Cohen, whom he called “instrumental” as POV’s policy wonk and added that her work inspires POV fight hard for the rights of doc filmmakers.
The night took an emotional turn when Glassman thanked former POV editor Peter Wintonick and dedicated the award to his late friend. Glassman ended by saying that it was Wintonick who encouraged him to take the helm at POV, adding that Wintonick said that that by taking the role, Glassman could help him do more for docs. The sentiment of the dedication resonated strongly with many filmmakers in the room.
In addition to his tireless work at POV, Glassman has served as an international programmer at Hot Docs and a programmer for Reel Canada, and he currently serves as an Adjunct Professor at Ryerson University’s Documentary Media programme and a programmer for Planet in Focus.
DOC also presented the Vanguard award to Chelsea McMullan, who received the DOC Vanguard Award. (McMullan’s work appears in a feature article in the current issue of POV.) The Honours was first held in 2014 with the Luminary Award presented to Elizabeth Klinck and the Vanguard to Brett Story.