FRIENDS of Canadian broadcasting, a non-profit grassroots advocacy group for Canadian journalism, storytelling, and public broadcasting and defender of Canada’s cultural sovereignty, recently launched their Tell Our Stories documentary series. “We represent citizens across Canada that care about local news, Canadian media, and professional journalism that tell our stories,” emphasized Liisa Ladouceur, Digital Creator at FRIENDS. “We want to protect a strong Canadian storytelling structure.”
Tell Our Stories is a series of short films created by five Canadian documentary filmmakers meant to highlight the important Canadian stories that are not being told. “We want to remind Canadians how important it is to tell our own stories,” emphasized Ladouceur. “We put out a call for submissions and we selected five documentaries that reflect a different part of the Canadian experience.”
Louise Abbott, a filmmaker local to the Eastern Townships, just so happened to be chosen as one of the five filmmakers to be involved in the project. She produced a short film titled ‘The Out-of-the-Way Dwellers’ and we caught up with her for all of the details.
Louise Abbott is a professional writer, documentary filmmaker, and photographer from the Townships.
After working in broadcasting throughout the 90s, she started to venture into her own projects. “I worked for broadcasting in the 90s but since around 2002, I have been working primarily on self-generated projects or non-profit projects.”
She’s done quite a few projects about the Townships, including Mansonville’s round barn and she is currently working on a film about the history of Ayer’s Cliff fair, but much of her work focuses on the North. “I’ve worked with Cree and Inuit organizations. I’ve worked in many communities.”
Local filmmaker dives into Tell Our Stories project
By Taylor McClure, Special to The Outlet
