About Frames North
Frames North is a magazine about documentary and independent film. We review films, write essays about the questions they raise, and publish practical guides for people who make them: how festivals choose, how a one-hour documentary gets financed, how to clear archive footage, how to edit two hundred hours into ninety minutes.
The name says where we stand. We watch films from everywhere, but we write from Canada, a country that did a great deal to invent the modern documentary. The National Film Board, Quebec's direct cinema, community media and a generation of Indigenous filmmakers all show up in these pages, alongside whatever is playing at the small cinema down the street this weekend.
Who writes it
Five critics, spread across the country, each with a beat:
- Claire Archambault (Montreal) on documentary, human rights films and the ethics of filming.
- Dev Raghunathan (Toronto) on festivals, distribution and the money behind independent film.
- Teodora Vlahos (Vancouver) on craft: cameras, sound, editing and archives.
- Owen MacAskill (Halifax) on Canadian film history and regional scenes.
- Leila Haddad (Winnipeg) on independent features, music films and film culture.
You can read more about each of them on the critics page.
What you will find here
| Section | What it holds |
|---|---|
| Frames | Every review, essay and guide, newest first |
| Film Notes | Our long reads on particular documentaries and the subjects they took on |
| Programme | The magazine's seven strands, from documentary to business and media |
How we work
We write about films we have actually watched, in full, and we say so when a film was hard to see. We do not take payment for reviews, and we do not let filmmakers or distributors approve what we write. When a piece is about the money side of the industry, we describe how things usually work and say plainly when practice varies; we would rather be useful than sound certain.
Corrections and pitches
If we got something wrong, tell us and we will fix it. If you have a film we should see or an idea for a piece, the contact page reaches the whole desk.