Cinéma Vérité: Defining the Moment

Cinéma Vérité: Defining the Moment

A feature documentary about documentary, Cinéma Vérité: Defining the Moment is a major retrospective of some of the century’s finest non-fiction films, and a celebration of the contemporary legacy of the Cinéma Vérité revolution of the 1950s and early 1960s. The revolution had many names: Free Cinema, Direct Cinema, Candid Eye, Cinéma Vérité – and it broke out simultaneously in England, France, the USA, and Canada. Wherever it appeared, the form marked a completely new way of understanding film, the audience and the world. The world of Cinéma Vérité filmmaking was created by a group of driven, dedicated rebels who did for documentary what Henri Cartier-Bresson did for photography. All the key players, including Michel Braulty, Robert Drew, Wolf Koenig, Richard Leacock, the Maysles brothers, Donn Pennebaker, Pierre Perrault, Jean Rouch, Hope Ryden, and Fred Wiseman, are featured in this film. Their use of lightweight, hand-held cameras and portable sound equipment, along with their unfailing commitment to recording reality as they saw it, revolutionized not only the documentary form, but all forms of movie-making. Set against the stilted, lecture-style documentary that preceded them, these works remain evergreen – equally fresh and original as when they first appeared.
Screening Schedule

No physical screenings scheduled.

Direction: Peter Wintonick
Script: Kirwan Cox
Cinematography: Francis Miquet
Editing: Marlo Miazga, Peter Wintonick
Music: Jimmy James
Actors: Jean-Pierre Beauviala, Michel Brault, Gillian Caldwell, Robin Cowie, Robert Drew, Jennifer Fox, William Greaves, Gregg Hale, Wolf Koenig, Roman Kroitor, Barbara Kopple, Richard Leacock, Douglas Leiterman, Terence Macartney-Filgate, Donn A. Pennebaker, Pierre Perrault, Karel Reisz, Jean Rouch, Hope Ryden, Floria Sigismondi, Frederick Wiseman, Albert Maysles
Production: National Film Board of Canada
Producers: Adam Symansky, Éric Michel
Executive producer: Sally Bochner
Format: DCP
Color: Color, B&W
Production Country: Canada
Production Year: 1999
Duration: 103'
Contact: National Film Board of Canada
Awards/Distinctions: Prize of the Ecumenical Jury (Forum) – Berlin IFF 2000, Special Mention – Vancouver IFF 2000, Special Jury Prize – Banff Television Festival 2001

Peter Wintonick

Filmography

1992 Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media (co-direction)
1994 Toward a Vision of a Future Society (short)
1994 Noam Chomsky: Personal Influences (short)
1994 Holocaust Denial vs. Freedom of Speech (short)
1994 Concision: No Time for New Ideas (short)
1994 A Propaganda Model of the Media Plus Exploring Alternative Media (short)
1999 Cinema Verite: Defining the Moment
2002 Seeing Is Believing: Handicams, Human Rights and the News (co-direction)
2009 pilgrIMAGE (co-direction)