Screening, Presentation and Q&A with Filmmaker and Blackburn Counselor Daniel Lanctot Set for April 10
Blackburn College will host a public screening and discussion of the documentary “Land Lost, Culture Lost” on Thursday, April 10, at 6:00 pm in Bothwell Auditorium. Co-directed by filmmaker and Blackburn College Counselor Daniel Lanctot, the 31-minute documentary explores Indigenous land loss and the role of participatory filmmaking in advocacy. Following the screening, Lanctot will lead a presentation and discussion on how collaborative storytelling can drive social change, foster cross-cultural communication and strengthen communities. The event is free and open to the public.
Before working in the mental health field, Lanctot was a filmmaker and community media facilitator. During his four years living in Cambodia, he worked on numerous participatory filmmaking projects that empowered marginalized communities to share their stories. “At the beginning of my career, these projects took the form of traditional documentary storytelling; I served as the interviewer, camera person and editor of the films and strove to best capture and convey the narratives of the film’s subjects,” Lanctot said. “However, my practice as a filmmaker continued to evolve – to the point where I became less and less interested with the process of traditional documentary filmmaking and was drawn to finding other forms to practice.”
He added, “Taking the camera out of my hands and putting the subjects of the film both in front of and behind the camera provided a greater sense of agency for the marginalized communities to address concerns and tell stories on their terms.”
“Land Lost, Culture Lost” was directed collaboratively by Lanctot alongside the residents of Kong Yuk, a Jarai indigenous village in northeastern Cambodia. Completed in 2010, the film documents the village’s experience of land loss and how its residents created a role-playing video to warn neighboring communities about how they were tricked and coerced into losing 1100 acres of their ancestral farmland.
“It’s a film within the film,” explained Lanctot. “The original role-play video was produced, shot and edited entirely by Kong Yuk villagers and features heavily in this documentary, a film whose aim, as the villagers would say, is to tell ‘the true story.’”
For additional information regarding this event, contact Daniel Lanctot.