<i>Challenge for Change: Activist Documentary at the National Film Board of Canada</i> (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: Challenge for Change: Activist Documentary at the National Film Board of Canada Laura Dixon (bio) Thomas Waugh, Michael Brendan Baker, and Ezra Winton, editors. Challenge for Change: Activist Documentary at the National Film Board of Canada. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2010. 574 pp. $24.95 (paper), $105.00 (cloth). The Challenge for Change/Société nouvelle (CFC/SN) program was launched in 1967 by the National Film Board of Canada and other governmental agencies with the primary social goal of alleviating poverty in Canada by producing and distributing documentary cinema. The program, innovative in its use of participatory filmmaking for social justice and its mission to use film to reveal Canadians' thoughts and opinions to one another, launched the highly acclaimed Fogo Island film experiment, a filmmaking and community-building project in Newfoundland led by Colin Low that aimed to "give voice" and political agency to the people of Fogo Island. The history and legacy of CFC/SN, well-known in certain circles but never before dealt with in a comprehensive academic study, can provide much-needed historical contextualization to contemporary trends in activist filmmaking. The editors, Thomas Waugh, Michael Brendan Baker, and Ezra Winton, state that the goal of the book is to document the politicized history of CFC/SN because of the "renewal of interest in activist, community-based documentary" (8). And it is true: the prevalence of theatrical documentary with political objectives, the increasing audience base due to more documentary festivals, and the converging and evolving multimedia landscape all invite a collection that closely examines a major movement in documentary film history. Acknowledging and seeking to avoid the danger of filmmakers and scholars opting to "reinvent the wheel" because of a lack of knowledge about the CFC/SN program, the editors put together this multifaceted collection to investigate the history of and theoretical impetus behind one of Canada's most celebrated media activist programs. The book consists of two interviews, thirty-five mostly original but some previously published essays organized into five parts according to their aims, as well as a foreword and an introduction. The book also includes a complete annotated filmography of the CFC/ SN catalog and a bibliography featuring previously published work on the subject, two research tools that can be extremely helpful to scholars. The foreword features an interview with activist writer and filmmaker Naomi Klein, daughter of CFC filmmaker Bonnie Sherr Klein. The interview—part remembrances of her childhood experiences as the daughter of a CFC filmmaker, part a discussion of the current activist documentary landscape, and part a discussion of the future of documentary—sets the tone for the collection as both historical and investigatory of the present moment. Part 1 seeks to provide historical context for the CFC/SN movement by featuring articles mostly from the official newsletter, Access/Médium-Média. Ranging in publication date from 1968 to 1984 but concentrated in the first few years of the program, these articles provide a sense of the generative moment and explain the process of CFC/SN projects by providing detailed snapshots of programs [End Page 71] at particular moments in time, such as Dorothy Todd Hénaut and Bonnie Sherr Klein's article, which documents and reflects on their videotape recording project in St.-Jacques. In this section, the editors offer only brief commentary and leave any extended analysis up to the reader. Of note is the inclusion of John Grierson's forward-looking piece published in Access in 1972 about decentralizing the means of production and Colin Low's memoir on his challenging but educational experience as a guest lecturer in Grierson's class at McGill University in 1971. Moving into current scholarship, part 2 analyzes the antipoverty and development stance of the organization in relationship to the films it produced. Peter K. Wiesner takes a focused look at the Fogo Island project and its American replications, analyzing the aesthetics and politics of community media in contrast to auteur documentary. Gerda Johanna Cammaer writes on documentaries on housing and the complications of reception due to the ethical concerns over representing the poor. Ethics come to the fore as well in Brenda Longfellow's essay...