Film Notes
Our longest pieces. Each one starts from a documentary or a filmmaking question and follows it out into the history, the ethics and the practical detail around it.
Film note
Crimes of Honour and the documentary record of so-called honour killings
Shelley Saywell's 1999 documentary Crimes of Honour was shot in Jordan and the West Bank. How it handled honour killings, and how later films followed it.
Read the noteFilm note
Kim's Story: The Road from Vietnam, and a life after the photograph
Shelley Saywell's 1997 documentary Kim's Story returns to the Trang Bang photograph and follows Kim Phuc, by then living in Canada, to the Wall in Washington.
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Martyr Street: growing up on Hebron's emptied Shuhada Street
A critic's note on Shelley Saywell's Martyr Street, which returns to Hebron's Shuhada Street to follow children growing up through years of conflict.
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Out of the Fire: Faye Schulman's partisan photographs and Holocaust memory
A note on Shelley Saywell's Out of the Fire, about Faye Schulman, the Jewish partisan who photographed her unit, and why her pictures matter to memory.
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Hamas: Behind the Mask and the hard bargain of access documentaries
Shelley Saywell's 2005 CBC film Hamas: Behind the Mask, and what access to armed movements costs, how filmmakers stay independent and how to watch.
Read the noteEssay
Shelley Saywell's The War at Home and the women who leave
An essay on Shelley Saywell's 2016 CBC documentary The War at Home, on women who flee abusive partners and the ethics of filming people still in danger.
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Honour-based violence in Canada on film: how to screen it with care
A viewing guide to documentaries on honour-based violence in Canada, with a screening checklist and discussion questions for classrooms and community nights.
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Teaching the Trang Bang photograph and the films made about it
A classroom guide to the 1972 Trang Bang photograph and the films about it, with a lesson plan, discussion questions and the 2025 attribution dispute.
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How a small Canadian documentary company works, from pitch to impact campaign
How small Canadian documentary companies run: pitching broadcasters, CMF support, CAVCO tax credits, delivery, school sales and impact campaigns.
Read the noteCraft guide
Background research for documentary: archives, interviews and fact-checking
A practical guide to documentary research in Canada: the research bible, archives, pre-interviews, vetting sources, chain of title and legal review.
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