New research group Fabriques-mondes expands the role of creative non-fiction in film

Ever since Marielle Nitoslawska, professor of Film Production in the Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema was appointed last year as the Concordia University Research Chair for Experimental Non-Fiction Practices in the Arts, she’s been busy building a home for experimental filmmakers whose work falls somewhere in-between traditional documentary and experimental film.

“Today, that space is starting to be called “creative non-fiction,” she says. “We are interested in hybrid expressions. Social documentary is of course still important, but these new ways of thinking add to the conversation.”

Ready to make its debut

Nitoslawska will debut her research group dedicated to creative non-fiction this week. Called Fabriques-mondes, the group is composed of colleagues from Film Production, Film Animation, and current Film and Moving Image Studies doctoral students as well as recent Mel Hoppenhiem graduates.

Fabriques-mondes member Papagena Robbins (PhD, Film and Moving Image Studies, 2017), sees few research groups on the subject and only one film festival in the world that brings artists and scholars together around creative non-fiction.

“When Dr. Nitoslawska received her CURC grant to create a research group on experimental nonfiction processes last year, she asked me to work with her to get the group going. I was just about to defend my dissertation on archive-based experimental documentaries, so I thought this was an interesting next step for me.”

“We spent a year meeting and getting to know one another and each other’s work. Now, we are making this debut to the public,” says Nitoslawska.

‘Always a world centre of documentary film’

On October 30, Fabriques-mondes premieres its first public event at Concordia with the screening of Bill Morrison’s 2016 experimental documentary Dawson City: Frozen Time.

The choice of Morrison’s film, with its hybrid approach to real Canadian history and subject matter mixing documentary and narrative footage, is appropriate as the group’s first showing.

“Québec has such deep roots in documentary via the NFB,” she explains. “It was always a world centre of documentary film.”

The screening kicks off an ambitious public phase for the group, aiming to connect with experimental filmmakers in Montréal and beyond.

“This year, we're bringing in artist/scholars from UdeM and UQAM as well as opening up the group to graduate students. I'll be working on a film and installation,” says Robbins.

“We will be having some kind of event once a week. We’ll be holding reading groups, screenings, inviting guests doing similar work, workshops on processes, labs,” adds Nitoslawska. “We’re trying to create community for great experimental filmmakers who need a home.”

Dawson City: Frozen Time is free to the public on Tuesday, October 30th at 730pm in the VA Building.