In just under a month on May 11th, I’ll be speaking in Vancouver at a conference about the intersection of documentary, addiction, madness and social health. I’ll be speaking about NFB and activist docs and focusing on three new conceptual frames I’m developing in my documentary research: proximal empathy, hierarchies of harm and anti-gratification. I’m honoured that the organizers tracked me down and asked me to speak, and in between writing my dissertation I’ve been busy catching up on docs that depict addiction, madness and other perceived social problems. Documentary indeed has a unique way of representing these subjects and issues, and after the conference I’ll post my paper here as well as reflections on the event. First film up is the one above. Flyer for the event is below (after the jump).