AFCOOP in co-operation with NSCAD University and DOC-Atlantic, the Documentary Organization of Canada, are pleased to present "DOCULA: Driving a Stake Through the Heart of Documentary", a two-day symposium and screenings that will bring together experienced and emerging filmmakers to stake claims, watch, argue, discuss, form alliances, plot the revolution, and resist the industrial compartmentalization of documentary.

AFCOOP members are welcome to attend this two-day event in late January, which will consist of a filmmaker symposium and roundtable (2-4PM at NSCAD’s Academy Building’s Film School) chaired by NSCAD’s Canada Research Chair in Contemporary Film and Media Studies, Professor Darrell Varga. Varga is completing a new book on filmmaking in Atlantic Canada and is beginning another manuscript on contemporary documentary filmmaking. According to Varga: "documentary production is in a state of crisis, with funding streams disappearing, changing technological conditions, and market pressures that limit opportunities for more challenging filmmaking. We need to bring filmmakers together to think about and discuss the problems and possibilities of filmmaking today".

Along with Nova Scotia filmmakers, DOCULA will feature as a special guest Montreal-based and internationally acclaimed documentary filmmaker, programmer, and writer Peter Wintonick who will intervene, provoke, and dismantle ideas of documentary. A free screening of Wintonick’s documentary "Pilgrimage" will take place at the Bus Stop Theatre in Halifax on Sunday, January 31st at 8:00PM. This screening is open to the public. Wintonick made the feature film with his daughter, Mira Burt-Wintonick. In the film, they journey together to the locations of cinema’s history, from the Parisian café where the first films were screened to Fellini’s Cinecitta and the Swiss village where Jean-Luc Godard is in exile. Along the way they think about images, past and present, about life and what it means to film.

The Saturday roundtable will be followed by a free evening screening of ‘Last Train Home’ the internationally acclaimed and award-winning documentary about migrant Chinese workers, produced by Montreal’s EyeSteel Films, the company that brought us the acclaimed ‘Up the Yangtzee’. ‘Last Train Home’ was directed by Lixin Fan. The free screening will held at at NSCAD University’s Bell Auditorium on Saturday, January 30th at 8:00PM and is open to the public. Peter Wintonick will give a keynote talk on the state of international documentary prior to the film.DOCULA is a presentation of the Atlantic Filmmakers Cooperative’s Monday Night Movie Program in partnership with the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design University. 

DOCULA is made possible with support from the Canada Council for the Arts and DOC Atlantic. AFCOOP’s operations are generously supported by The Canada Council for the Arts, CBC Television, The National Film Board, and the Nova Scotia Department of Tourism, Culture and Heritage.

For more information, please contact Greg Morris-Poultney, at the Atlantic Filmmakers Cooperative – 902-420-4494 or admin@afcoop.ca 

Volunteer Stills Photographer(s) Needed  AFCOOP is looking for a volunteer to to take photographs during the Docula Symposium on January 30th and 31st. If interested, please contact Greg Morris-Poultney at 420-4494 or admin@afcoop.ca