The Interactive Documentary in Canada

In the 2010s Canada was a world leader in creating interactive documentaries. By the 2020s many of these celebrated i-docs were rendered inaccessible by obsolete technology. This collection examines the short-lived past and the imagined future of the i-doc and emphasizes its impact on the contemporary film and media landscape in Canada and beyond.

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Interactive documentary emerged rapidly from a constellation of changing technologies and practices to much excitement, yet its history is short and its future uncertain. In the mid-2010s Canada was a world leader in the creation of i-docs. Less than a decade later technological obsolescence has rendered many of these celebrated projects inaccessible, while rapid digital innovation continues to change the i-doc form and its modes of experience.

The Interactive Documentary in Canada captures this transitional moment in documentary filmmaking and media production. Bringing together a range of historical, theoretical, and critical approaches, this collection examines the past – and the imagined future – of a nonfiction storytelling phenomenon that has Canadian institutions, figures, and works at its centre. Embracing a polyphonic conception of interactive documentary, the volume includes explorations of web-based, app-based, installation, and virtual reality works that push the boundaries of what is understood as documentary cinema. Leading documentary scholars and makers consider the historical and technological contexts of i-doc production, innovation, and exhibition; the political and pedagogical potential of the genre; the ethics of the i‐doc experience; and the format’s future lifespan in the contemporary media landscape.

The Interactive Documentary in Canada establishes a place for the i-doc in the history of Canadian film, highlighting the genre’s significant impact on the National Film Board of Canada and on contemporary global documentary media.