It is with great pleasure that I extend the invitation to all 2008 ICA Conference attendees to attend our Opening Plenary Session on the Filmmaker-in-Residence on Thursday evening, 22 May 2008. Our Opening Reception will follow this interactive plenary session!
What is the Filmmaker-in-Residence? It is an award-winning experimental, immersive, online, interactive documentary and experimental website that has been described as "engrossing" as well as "refreshing, engaging, and political" (see http://www.nfb.ca/filmmakerinresidence)! Put simply, it is an absolutely amazing experience that will pull you into the lives and struggles of ordinary people.
Filmmaker-in-Residence is compelling…noisy…visually appealing interactive media with filmmakers' blogs … news reports … films … photos … and total immersion.
More importantly for our conference theme of "Communicating for Social Impact," this National Film Board initiative provides us with opportunities to see and hear what happens when governmental initiatives fund creative opportunities for community members to portray their lives via media artistry and to advocate on their own behalf. I find that the concept and design implementation are inspiring and thought-provoking. This session also provides a preview of some miniplenary, theme, and Divisional or Special Interest Group panels sprinkled throughout our conference program.
Our Plenary Session features our speakers, Tom Perlmutter, the Government Film Commissioner and President of the National Film Board of Canada (see http://www.nfb.ca/portraits/tom_perlmutter/en), as well as Filmmaker-in-Residence producer Gerry Flahive (see http://www.nfb.ca/portraits/gerry_flahive/en). As our local arrangements coordinator, Francois Cooren, has noted, wherever Filmmaker-in-Residence has been shown, it has always been a huge success. Its success is not surprising since Filmmaker-in-Residence has was launched only in 2006 at the International Documentary Festival but already has won the Canadian New Media Award in the Experimental Website Category at the very prestigious 2007 Boomerang Awards. Featuring Filmmaker-in-Residence is a great opportunity both for ICA and the NFB and intersects with many members' interests and research projects - from instructional possibilities to funded research and community engagement.
Andre H. Caron, Professeur Titulaire et Directeur Scientifique de la Chaire Bell Canada, from the Departement de Communication at the Universite de Montreal, will introduce and facilitate discussion among our speakers and audience members.
As noted earlier, our 90-minute Opening Plenary session is on Thursday, 22 May 2008, beginning at 6:00 pm, and concluding with our all-association reception at 7:30 pm in our conference location, Le Centre Sheraton Montreal Hotel.
I wish to express my great appreciation to Francois and Andre for their work on this session. I promise that this Opening Plenary will prove to be both enlightening and engaging - a truly enjoyable and meaningful way to begin our 2008 conference!
