Atlantic Conversations: Fostering the Documentary Ecosystem in Atlantic Canada
Join us for a series of lunchtime moderated online conversations aimed at increasing documentary production in Atlantic Canada. Throughout 2023, nine conversations will be hosted by DOC Atlantic, in collaboration with Lunenburg Doc Fest and DOCTalks.
The first three conversations are focused on some alarming trends. Despite the public’s increasing appetite for documentaries and a growing number of DOC Atlantic members, documentary one-off production in Atlantic Canada has decreased even more than in other regions. At the Canada Media Fund (CMF), productions in this region represent just 5% of one-offs financed in the last seven years and 2.7% of the POV documentaries during the same period. No documentary applications from the Atlantic region have been funded under Telefilm’s Theatrical Documentary program since 2018-2019.
To understand this, we have reached out to our producing partners, who want to hear from you. We invite you to share your perspectives with the CBC, Telefilm, and Documentary Channel and also learn about how you can work with them. Our goal is for these conversations to engage documentary creators and producing partners to turn the tide – to sustain our industry so we can thrive as a documentary community.
Thursday, March 9, 2023
12:30 – 1:30 pm AST
A conversation with CBC DOCS’ Sue Dando, Executive in Charge of Production for The Nature of Things, Lesley Birchard, Executive in Charge of Production for The Nature of Things and CBC Short Docs, and Nic Meloney, Production Executive and Indigenous Advisor
For more information about working with CBC Nature of Things and CBC Short Docs please refer to the following websites:
https://www.cbc.ca/independentproducers/
https://www.cbc.ca/documentaries
Register [HERE] to receive a Zoom link for the conversation
The next conversation will take place on March 23.
Further sets of conversations with other stakeholders will take place in the spring and fall in collaboration with Lunenburg Doc Fest and DOCTalks. Topics of focus and guests will be chosen based on consultation with participants in the first series and DOC-Atlantic members.
Lunenburg Doc Fest’s mission is to entertain, educate, and inspire by showcasing the documentary art form and creating a cultural connection between audiences and artists in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia.
DOCTalks seeks to promote cross-sector collaborations between creators – documentary producers, academic researchers, charities, governments, broadcasters, foundations, & funders – to produce knowledge-based documentary media projects.