Canadian Cinema
Remembrance on film: Canadian documentaries and the world wars
From the NFB's wartime reels and Churchill's Island to the fight over The Valour and the Horror, how Canadian documentaries have remembered the world wars.
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Hector Campbell
Hector grew up in Cape Breton on a diet of public television and repertory screenings, and now writes from Halifax. He covers Canadian film history, the National Film Board tradition and regional scenes that rarely make national headlines.
Pieces by Hector
Filmmaking Craft
Camera angles and shot types: a field glossary for documentary
What camera angles and shot types mean on a documentary shoot: a glossary from extreme wide to overhead, what each one does, and when each one can mislead.
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Filmmaking Craft
The 180-degree rule in film, and why documentaries break it
The 180-degree rule in film explained: the line between two people, screen direction, honest ways to cross it, and why documentary crews cross it so often.
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Canadian Cinema
Indigenous documentary in Canada, from Obomsawin to a new generation
From Alanis Obomsawin and the Indian Film Crew to Isuma and Tasha Hubbard, a short history of Indigenous documentary in Canada and where to start watching.
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Canadian Cinema
Quebec's direct cinema and the handheld revolution
How Michel Brault, Gilles Groulx and Pierre Perrault took light cameras and live sound into Quebec life, and how cinéma direct differs from vérité.
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Canadian Cinema
Challenge for Change and the birth of participatory documentary
How the NFB's Challenge for Change program and the 1967 Fogo Island films changed who controls a documentary, and why the Fogo process still matters.
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