Transcript The social and cultural impact of Canadian documentaries

Breaking New Ground
The social and cultural
impact of Canadian
documentaries
Prepared for the Documentary Policy
Advisory Group
Doc Summit 2005
April 25, 2005
Context
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Doc Summit 2004 and Get Real 2
NFB ongoing interest in evaluating the social and
cultural impact of its films
Demonstrated interest on the part of the
Documentary Policy Advisory Group
Challenges:
 Data and information availability and reliability
(ie. objectivity)
 Causality
 Aggregation
 Timeframe
 Cost
Methodology
Three part approach:
 Case studies
 Annotated bibliography
 Measurement methods and framework
Outcomes: The study
 Generates useful information and baseline
findings
 Presents a course of action for the future –
both for immediate action and long-term
opportunities.
Methodology : Case studies
Seven cases were selected:
 Silence of the Strings
 The Corporation
 FIX: Story of an addicted city
 Kanehsatake
 SQUAT!
 L’erreur boréale
 Qulliq
FINDINGS: CASE STUDIES
IMPACTS
Media Community
Local/Prov
Natl/Intl
Silence of
the Strings
X
Community
Local
Provinces
SQUAT!
X
Local
Kanehsatake
X
Qulliq
Policy or
Advocacy,
Legislative Part of a
change
mvt.,
campaign
Raise
awareness
Legitamize
an issue
Municipal
budgets
X
X
No
X
X
Provincial
National
Internationa
l
Change in
approach
of
authorities
X
X
Community
National
Internationa
No
X
X
FINDINGS: CASE STUDIES
IMPACTS
Media Community
Local/Prov
Natl/Intl
Policy or
Legislative
change
L’Erreur
boréale
X
Provincial
Public
Commission
FIX
X
Local
Provincial
National
The
Corporation
X
National
International
Advocacy
Part of a
mvt.,
campaign
Raise
awareness
Legitamize
an issue
X
X
Municipal
Election
Policy
X
X
No
X
X
Silence of the Strings (2002)
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Produced by Sherry Lepage and Sher Morgan of A
Morgan/Moonbeam Production. SoS resulted in:
 Made monies for music education an issue in
school board elections
 Program funding was restored and enrollment in
the elementary strings program is up 325%
 Building new community partnerships
 Healing relationships between board, music
educators and the community
 Use as an advocacy tool in other parts of the
country
SQUAT! (2002)

Produced by Nicole Hubert of Les Productions du
Rapide Blanc and directed by Ève Lamont. SQUAT!
resulted in:
 Radical shifts in points of view (re. Squatters)
 Putting a human face and voice on a media
carricature
 Gave legitimacy to the squatters’ struggles and to
other organizations working on behalf of
affordable housing
 Large organizations such as FRAPRU and smaller
organizations making use of the film
 Use in a college and university departments
Kanehsatake 270 Years of Resistance
(1993)
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Produced and directed by Alanis Obomsawin (and
producer Wolf Koenig). Kanehsatake resulted in:
 Tremendous impact on aboriginal communities
 Municipalities and authorities not responding in
a similar fashion (not repeating what occurred in
1990)
 Stimulating ongoing debate about recognition of
aboriginal land rights
 Consistent use in university departments and a
catalytic force for many professors and students
L’erreur boréale (1999)
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Co-Produced by ACPAV and the NFB and directed by Richard
Desjardins and Robert Monderie. L’erreur boréale resulted in:
 Raising awareness and initiating broad public debate
 The creation of a coalition of environmental groups,
religions organizations, forestry workers, First Nations and
unions (representing in total some 200,000 members).
 A call for an independent public inquiry into the forestry
regime in Quebec (Coulombe report released in Dec 2004)
 Political and policy change
 Important impact, shifts in viewpoints of forestry engineers
 Continuing to be used as an advocacy tool by educators and
environmental groups
 An excellent pedagogical tool and a powerful catalyst
Impact has been sustained over the six (6) years since its release
Qulliq (1992)
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Produced by Marie-Hélène Cousineau for Arnait
Video Productions. Qulliq resulted in:
 Raising awareness and consciousness among
Inuit women and the larger Inuit community
 Preserving and enhancing Inuit culture and
language
 Creating jobs and economic development (i.e.
an indigenous and independent industry)
In part contributed to making Isuma an
internationally recognized model of communitybased media production
FIX: Story of an addicted city (2002)
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Produced by Nettie Wild and Betsy Carson (of Canada Wild
Productions) and directed by Nettie Wild. FIX resulted in:
 Creating a shift in awareness and a shift in action
 Helping to build community
 Brought the debate about drugs and what to do about them
out of the shadows and into the open
 Nurses getting a clearer picture of drug use (than through
traditional research)
 The documentary being one of seven major events affecting the
outcome of the Vancouver municipal election
 Opening North America’s first Safe Injection Site
 FIX screenings and forums across the country – making the
subject an national issue
The Corporation (2003)
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Produced by Mark Achbar and Bart Simpson of Big Picture
Media Corporation and co-directed by Mark Achbar and Jennifer
Abbott with Joel Bakan, writer and co-creator. The Corporation
resulted in:
 Public discourse, generating discussion about social versus
purely economic goals
 Learning and improvement of high level corporate CEOs,
business people and students
 Major impact in the educational system
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Western’s Richard Ivey School of Business
Part of social responsibility program at a university in Seattle
Varied uses (in academic disciplines and community orgs.)
Findings: Case studies
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TV broadcast useful in sensitizing the public to
issues or broadening the perspective, but no carrythrough to action
For a most effective follow-through to action, the
films:
 Need to be part of a larger social group, movt.
 Thrive when part of media discourse
 Can have their most enduring impact through
the education system
 Greatest impact comes from integrated
marketing, outreach and promotion (« means »)
Findings: Case studies
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Is evaluating social impact useful?
 Yes, but with some skepticism
 Difficulties in quantifying and qualifying
impact over the long-term; worth doing but
not on a short-term basis (3-5 year plan)
 Crucial to pay attention to intangibles like
impact (don’t get factored into funding
decisions)
 Exercise caution – quantification can simplify
and sterilize
Findings: Case studies
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What to evaluate? To collect?
 Concrete results – what has been achieved
 How the film has been used
 Cast net wide : collect both anecdotal and
quantitative data from community orgs. and
educational institutions
Findings: Measurement Methods
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Research traditions: the “Case study” method and
the “Survey” method.
The “case study method”:
 Case studies of individual films
 Controlled experiment studies
Within the survey model four approaches are
reviewed and evaluated:
 Systematic cataloguing of documentary usage
 Surveys of people working in the film industry
 Surveys of audiences or the public at large
 Social indicators research
The Road Ahead
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Immediate priorities
 Dialogue and consultation with individuals and
groups who use documentaries
 Capture « usage and viewership» statistics
and other experience and actions
 Ex. schools, libraries, community and
grassroots organizations
 Establish systematic tracking standards and
processes
 Systematic tracking of distribution
 Establish systematic tracking standards and
processes
The Road Ahead
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Immediate priorities (cont’d)
 Some tracking on a case-study basis
 Provides whole picture
 Define a representative sample
 Survey of filmmakers and producers
 Know what documentary filmmakers think
about social impact
 Will reveal range of intended uses and impacts
 Surveys of audiences, « users » and citizens
 Will provide direct evidence of impacts
The Road Ahead
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Long-term opportunities
 Controlled experiments
 Best done by academic researchers
 Work to generate interest in university
milieu
 Development of social indicators
 Holds some promise but has proven
difficult in practice
 Leave research to academic milieu