The outpouring of tributes to documentary legend Debbie Nightingale over the summer has been heartening although the circumstances are tragic. To be gone at age seventy-one is so unfair especially for someone as vibrant and breezy as her. The last time I spoke to Debbie was a year and a half ago when she had recently celebrated her seventieth birthday. She was in great spirits, wanting me and “my gang” as she called my family, to come up to Haute Goat, her hobby farm near Port Hope. It was there she had found her proper home with her husband Shain, among sheep and pigs and goats—and a golf course and café.
For many of us in the film world, it was surprising, though delightful, that Debbie had abandoned cinema and the city for goats in the countryside. When I first met her, she was deeply engaged in the burgeoning world of Canadian cinema in the early 1980s. At the Festival of Festivals (now TIFF), she was a whirlwind of activity, engaged in all aspects of the rapidly building Industry section of the big fall event. What struck me about her was how unpretentious she was; unlike too many of her colleagues at the Festival, she genuinely enjoyed meeting people and was open to handling any task.
She brought those qualities to Hot Docs and the Canadian Independent Film Caucus (now DOC) as its inaugural executive director. I was one of many documentary enthusiasts who worked at Hot Docs in the early days. Besides her home, the Caucus and the festival rented a small office on Dupont very close to where I live. I’d drop by to help and Debbie always had the same approach: a smile, followed by a request, “Can you help us with this?”
Her pragmatic but friendly style yielded big results for Hot Docs immediately. Although she was self-deprecating about raising $100,000 for a neophyte festival—on documentaries, no less—I still think it was an astonishing success. She and Paul Jay deserve the tributes they’ve received in recent years for organizing a festival and documentary organization that are long enduring. Kudos and farewell, Debbie—truly a grand spirit gone too soon.
