DISTINCT PERSPECTIVES are molded on the East Coast. Director John Walker, one of DOC’s founders who now lives in Nova Scotia, cites many driving factors for our independent ways: a spirited storytelling tradition, a density of educational institutions, and a diversity of cultures including Indigenous peoples, Black Canadians, Acadians, Gaelic settlers, and the exponential rise of immigrants in recent years. To Walker, a seasoned filmmaker, these factors are advantages: “We have a real leg up in terms of our possibilities for storytelling here.”
Despite its assets and being home to documentary titans like Walker and Sylvia D. Hamilton, the region is usually treated as an afterthought. This isn’t unique to the documentary landscape: Atlantic Canadians are perpetual underdogs in every field of endeavour. It’s a situation that breeds resourcefulness and innovative spirit (more ideal filmmaker traits!). And admittedly there’s freedom in being on the fringes: “I’ve never felt like I have to fit into someone else’s version of how this is done,” says director Millefiore Clarkes from her home in PEI. But the associated isolation can have its downsides. “What is your superpower can also be your Achilles heel,” adds Clarkes, who won DOC Institute’s Vanguard award in 2019.
Prior to the pandemic, through advocacy efforts,
