Details
Category: Feature
Media: Video
Turnaround time: More than a month
Description of story
The first of a 3-part documentary about the exodus of Anglophones from Quebec, as a result of the threat of separation from Canada. This first part is seen through the eyes of 6 friends who left Montreal in the 70's, after the separatist Parti Quebecois first came to power in the province, and the threat of separation for them became very real.
Feedback requested
This is my first attempt at a real documentary shot in 2008. Really proud of it but feels like something is missing in the writing. (There are 2 more parts). Feedback on this segment please. Thanks.
Gear used in production
Canon XH A1 with
Sennheiser shotgun and lavalier mics.
Tota lights.
I've been thinking about this ambitious beginning to an even more ambitious series for most of the day. I want to like it. I think parts are great, well shot interviews, the many subjects edited pretty well. But I'm left confused. Partly because I'm an American and don't understand the issues of Quebec. But that is the biggest problem. This piece assumes a local, fairly informed audience. Lacking that, it is a confusing story thar I found hard to follow and to understand. I don't have the contextual knowledge and the video didn't provide much. Many little things like what an Anglophone is. Perhaps some narration would help get to the point. The interviews were long without a whole lot to watch bur the interviewees to tell this story.
These folks left Quebec because they thought it would secede from Canada, I think. There is an undertone of bigotry toward the French.
I guess I'd at least like to see more of these people's lives in there new homes. Or anything other than them talking. But this subject is a hard one to shoot. It is historical and therefore not a lot of activity in the present to visualize it. It almost seems like a documentary that doesn't have much to look at might not be a documentary.
I admire the effort.
Mike Lloyd