Forthcoming. A Good Night Out: Neoliberalism and Documentary Cultural Politics at the Hot Docs Film Festival  (McGill-Queen’s University Press).

Based on fifteen years of research, my first monograph interrogates the impact neoliberalism has had on documentary cinema and culture, using the Toronto-based Hot Docs film festival as the main example.

2020. Documentary Film Festivals Vol 1: Methods, History, Politics, co-edited with Aida Vallejo (Palgrave Macmillan)

This anthology provides the first comprehensive overview of the global landscape of documentary film festivals. Contributors from across the globe offer in-depth analysis of both internationally renowned and more alternative festivals.

2020. Documentary Film Festivals Vol 2: Changes, Challenges, Professional Perspectives, co-edited with Aida Vallejo (Palgrave Macmillan)

Volume 2 follows the first as an anthology that provides the first comprehensive overview of the global landscape of documentary film festivals, looking at its contemporary and future challenges. Contributors from across the globe reflect on how documentary has positioned itself within both internationally renowned and more alternative festivals.

2014. Screening Truth to Power: A Reader on Documentary Activism (Cinema Politica), Co-edited with Svetla Turnin

A reflection on ten years of activities of the documentary screening non-profit Cinema Politica, this collection brings together a diversity of essays, interviews, impressions and specially curated ‘favourite docs’ lists – with an eye to connecting documentary to activism. Contact Cinema Politica to purchase a copy of the book.

2010. Challenge for Change: Activist Documentary at the National Film Board of Canada (McGill-Queen’s University Press), Co-edited with Thomas Waugh and Michael Brendan Baker

The first comprehensive collection of historical and new essays and interviews, as well as precious archival materials that give shape to one of the world’s most fascinating and polarizing documentary experiments, launched by Canada’s NFB in the 1960s.

2020. “The Program(ming) is Political: Documentary, Festivals and the Politics of Programming” in InsUrgent Media from the Front: A Global Media Activism Reader, edited by Stephen Charbonneau and Christopher Robe, Indiana University Press.

A chapter that discusses the ways in which documentary may be considered alternative or radical media, with a focus on film festivals and the politics of programming.

2020. “Letting it Seep In: Ojibwe Filmmaking Duo Adam and Zack Khalil Discuss Political Filmmaking as Covert Ops” in InsUrgent Media from the Front: A Global Media Activism Reader, edited by Stephen Charbonneau and Christopher Robe, Indiana University Press.

An interview with turbo-talented, politically provocative Ojibwe filmmaker-brothers Adam and Zack Khalil.

2020. “Hot Zones: The Cultural Politics of Documentary Through a Film Festival Lens” in Documentary Film Festivals: History, Politics, Challenges, edited by Aida Vallejo and Ezra Winton, Palgrave Macmillan.

This chapter traces the history of the Hot Docs film festival from local grassroots upstart to commercially successful global player, with an emphasis on cultural politics.

2019. “Documentary Media: Towards a Definition.” In The SAGE International Encyclopedia of Mass Media and Society, edited by Debra L. Merskin, SAGE Publications.

A 5,000 word attempt at defining documentary, jumping off from “the creative treatment of actuality” to a comprehensive, contemporary evaluation of fiction’s twice-removed cousin.

2017. “The Revolution Will Not be Festivalized: Documentary Film Festivals and Activism” in Activist Film Festivals: Towards a Political Subject, Co-authored with Svetla Turnin, edited by Sonia Tascón and Tyson Wils, Intellect. [enter discount code ACTIVIST40 for 40% off this book]

In this chapter we position political and radical activism with film festival culture and discover a collision of forces that signal both trouble possibility.

2015. “Interview with Ezra Winton, Director of Programming at Cinema Politica,” Papagena Robbins and Viviane Saglier, Special Dossier on Documentary Festivals, as part of Special Issue, Other Networks: Expanding Filim Festival Perspectives, Synoptique, Vol. 3, No. 2, Fall.

Poppy and Viviane interview me about film programming and politics, based on my research as well as my work with Cinema Politica.

2013. “Challenges for Change: Innovations at the National Film Board of Canada,” co-authored with Thomas Waugh, in The Documentary Film Book, Palgrave/British Film Institute.

A chapter that looks at the National Film Board of Canada’s history, directions, operations, politics and cultural output.

2012; 2009. “Canadian Cultural Policy in the Age of Media Abundance: Old Challenges, New Technologies,” co-authored with Ira Wagman, In Mediascapes: New Patterns in Canadian Communications, 3rd and 4th editions, Nelson Education.

Ira was my PhD advisor and generously invited me to co-author this Canadian textbook chapter. I learned a lot from this experience and remain grateful to Ira for the opportunity so early in my academic career.

2010. “If a Revolution Is Screened and No One Is There to See It, Does It Make a Sound? Grassroots Distribution from Challenge for Change to Cinema Politica,” co-authored with Jason Garrison, In Challenge for Change: Activist Documentary at the National Film Board of Canada, edited by Thomas Waugh, Ezra Winton and Michael Brendan Baker, McGill-Queen’s University Press.

A chapter that looks at the creation of counterpublics through grassroots screenings of NFB titles, using Michael Kanentakeron Mitchell’s classic You Are On Indian Land as a case study.

2013. Good for the Heart and Soul, Good for Business: The Cultural Politics of Documentary at the Hot Docs Film Festival, PhD Dissertation, Carleton University (Communication Studies).

My PhD dissertation takes a close look at the complex and influential documentary cultural institution known as Hot Docs – the world’s second largest international documentary film festival (after IDFA in Amsterdam). My thesis was successfully defended on December 18th, 2013 and the full PDF can be directly downloaded here.

2007. The Spaces Between: Documentary Distribution and Exhibition as Counterpublics, MA Thesis, Concordia University (Media Studies).

Like most MA theses, it’s rough around the edges. Despite that fact, I’m making it available to anyone interested enough to read through it. You can download the 256 page PDF here.