Documentaire

En anglais seulement

Betrayal of Faith recently received the Award of Excellence from the Religion Communicators Council and is now a finalist for a Gabriel Award (59th Annual Gabriel Awards Finalists - Catholic Media Association), awarded by the Catholic Media Conference to “honour excellence in film, broadcast, and digital media productions released in the United States and Canada.” The winner will be announced sometime in May or early June.

See documentary page on the website of CBC's Ideas
Listen to the documentary on the podcast of CBC's Ideas

Betrayal of Faith, the radio documentary I have been working on with producer Kevin Burns, premiered on CBC Radio's "Ideas" show on April 3, 2024.

Using on-site sound, period music, dramatic narration, and interviews with historians and other experts, this one-hour program takes the listener inside the dramatic story of Pierre-Anthoine Pastedechouan, an Indigenous boy taken from early colonial Canada to Angers, France in the 1620s to receive baptism and a religious education at the hands of Recollet missionaries. Pastedechouan bucked the odds by surviving his five-year stint overseas, only to face a tenuous, then tragic existence when he returned home so greatly changed.

In April 2023 Kevin and I flew to Angers, France, to tape at the Cathedrale

Saint-Maurice and at La Baumette, the Recollet convent where Pastedechouan spent five years of his youth, receiving baptism and learning Latin, French, and theology, and serving as a fundraiser and language tutor in his maternal Innu language.


Kevin setting up the recording equipment in the La Baumette chapel (not the dramatic undressed cliff face)	Kevin and Emma outside Cathedrale Saint-Maurice	Interior of the Cathedrale Saint-Maurice

In my view, many of the ingredients that go into making a great book or article (for example, an eye for tiny but telling details, a strong narrative trajectory, and an ability to evoke the past – or present - in all of its complex and sensuous reality), are also critical in a documentary. I enjoy collaborating with creative people on projects of mutual interest. Please contact me if this interests you!