Award winning documentary filmmaker Nettie Wild steps out from behind the camera to present this special three-hour workshop. Presented by the Saltspring Film Society at the Lions Hall on Thursday, May 20.

Nettie Wild has made a career of filming behind the headlines and frontlines of revolutions and social change around the world. Her feature documentary films have won international acclaim at film festivals and have been broadcast and shown in theatres around the world.

Her feature titles include:

A RUSTLING OF LEAVES:

Inside the Philippine Revolution: The camera captures characters whose stories chronicle the three points of a political triangle: the legal left, the illegal and armed revolution (the New People's Army,) and the enemy which threatens them both – armed paramilitary death squads.

BLOCKADE:

In the mountains and valleys of northern British Columbia, the Gitkxan and Wet’suweten First Nations clash with non-natives at the heart of the boldest aboriginal land claims case to challenge the white history of Canada.

A Place Called Chiapas:

Nettie’s Canadian/Mexican film crew travels to the jungle canyons of southern Mexico to capture eight months in the elusive and fragile life of the Zapatista indigenous uprising.

FIX:

The Story of an Addicted City: Dean Wilson (Canada's most outspoken drug addict) and Ann Livingston (a charismatic organizer) lead an unpredictable crew of street addicts in their fight to open North America's first safe injection site for drug users in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside.

Before working in documentary film, Nettie was a professional actress on stage. Now, she combines both worlds as she shoots and cuts her footage to discover the dramatic arc of her real-life characters. The resulting high stakes human dramas have become a trademark of her award-winning documentaries.
 
In this three-hour interactive workshop Nettie will take us inside her world as a documentary filmmaker. She will show clips from her feature films to illustrate how she identifies key characters, follows their conflict and, most importantly, films them as they face their own contradictions.  She will pose to workshop participants the same cinematic and ethical questions that face her as a filmmaker: What exactly is a documentary?  How does it differ from news?  From a drama?  From reality TV? Can you film an “issue”?  Who is your main character? Is she or he in fact ready to be filmed? Will this central character allow you to keep filming when the going gets tough?  When do you turn your camera on?  When do you shut if off?  Why work with a crew? (Why not do it all yourself?)  What does an editor bring to your project?  What is the social contract between the filmmaker and the subjects whom she films?  As the filmmaker, how do you fulfill that contract?

The workshop runs from 6:30 to 9:30 pm, Thursday May 20, at the Lions Hall.

The workshop fee is $25 and registration forms are available at Salt Spring Books.

Her latest project is BEVEL UP, an interactive DVD. She is currently writing her first fictional screenplay.

For more information on Nettie and her films, see www.canadawildproductions.com