Live Documentary as Jazz, Free event at Art Windsor Essex, Friday 25 October 11:30 am-12:45 pm.
Site-specific live documentary brings together documentary subjects and the audience inside a space connected to story that allows the documentary narrative to unfold as a live ephemeral experience along with the narrators, musicians, and the production crew. Whereas traditional documentary film, like a pre-recorded musical album, is an exercise in full authorial, editorial, and technical control, the live-documentary is an exercise in letting go of the control and allowing the story to unfold much like the spontaneity of a live performance by a group of jazz musicians improvising within a predetermined structure. Moreover, when placed within, on, or next to a site or a space that is integral to the story, live-documentary harnesses the co-presence of the audience, the simultaneity of the performance, and the immediacy of response in the reception of the narrative.
Cyrus Sundar Singh is a Gemini Award-winning filmmaker. He will bring his expertise in live documentary, collaborative filmmaking with students and the public, and live documentary for community building to our lab in year 4. His research and productions have taken him worldwide including Senegal, India, Israel, Spain, Haiti, Jamaica, and Sri Lanka. From the Award-winning NFB debut Film Club (2001) to the site-specific live-documentary world premieres: Brothers In The Kitchen (2016) and Africville in Black and White in 2017/18—a nascent hybrid co-creative methodology. His work has been exhibited in Senegal, India, Spain, Haiti, Jamaica, and Sri Lanka, and by broadcasters, including BellMedia, CBC, VisionTV, Smithsonian Channel, Discovery Channel, and MuchMusic. As a Research Fellow with CERC in Migration (TMU), he conceived, mentored, and produced the i am... (2021) storytelling project—28 short films by 28 graduate students exploring identity and belonging, Under the Tent (2022) 18 creative projects unpacking Canadian Multiculturalism, and WhereWeStand (2023/24) 8 creative projects pairing Indigenous and non-Indigenous participants.
Information about the Moving Histories symposium can be found at the link https://movinghistories.com/symposium-1