Winton, Ezra

Education
Ph.D., Communication Studies, Carleton University, Canada, 2013
M.A., Media Studies, Concordia University, Canada, 2007
B.A., Double Major – Political Science and Communication Studies, Concordia University, Canada, 2005
Creative Non-Fiction Writing Program, University of Toronto Continuing Education Program (Honours), 2020

Teaching Interests
Documentary film and media, global and “minority” cinemas, settler and Indigenous cinemas, cultural studies, representation, television studies, semiotics, alternative and social movement media, film festivals, media circulation and reception.

Select Publications

Books

• Winton, Ezra and Dana Claxton. Forthcoming (2023). Indigenous Media Arts in Canada: Making, Caring, Sharing. Waterloo: Wilfred-Laurier University Press.
• Winton, Ezra. Forthcoming (2024). Rules for Documentary Radicals: Provocations and Interventions for a Non-Fiction Cinema Beyond Colonial Capitalism. Arbeiter Ring Press.
• Winton, Ezra. Forthcoming (2024). Buying in to Doing Good: Documentary Politics and Curatorial Ethics at the Hot Docs Film Festival. Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press.
• Winton, Ezra and Aida Vallejo. 2020. Documentary Film Festivals, Volume 1: Methods, History, Politics. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
• Winton, Ezra and Aida Vallejo. 2020. Documentary Film Festivals, Volume 2: Changes, Challenges, Professional Perspectives. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
• Turnin, Svetla and Ezra Winton. 2014. Screening Truth to Power: A Reader on Documentary Activism, 2014. Montreal: Cinema Politica.
• ­­Waugh, Thomas, Michael Brendan Baker and Ezra Winton. 2010. Challenge for Change: Activist Documentary at the National Film Board of Canada. Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press.

Book Chapters

• Winton, Ezra. 2020. “Framing Frames of Counterpower: The Cultural Politics of Programming.” In Contemporary Radical Film Culture: Networks, Organisations and Activists, Jack Newsinger, Michael Wayne and Steve Presence, eds. London: Routledge.
• Winton, Ezra. 2021. “Reclaiming Popular Documentary: Fast Festivals and the Private Interest Documentary.” In Reclaiming Popular Documentary, Christie Milliken and Steve Anderson, eds. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
• Winton, Ezra. 2020. “The Program(ming) is Political: Documentary, Festivals and the Politics of Programming.” In InsUrgent Media from the Front: A Global Media Activism Reader, Stephen Charbonneau and Christopher Robe, eds. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
• Winton, Ezra. 2020. “Letting it Seep In: Ojibwe Filmmaking Duo Adam and Zack Khalil Discuss Political Filmmaking as Covert Ops.” In InsUrgent Media from the Front: A Global Media Activism Reader, Stephen Charbonneau and Christopher Robe, eds. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
• Winton, Ezra. 2020. “Hot Zones: The Cultural Politics of Documentary Through a Film Festival Lens.” In Documentary Film Festivals: History, Politics, Challenges, Aida Vallejo and Ezra Winton, eds. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
• Winton, Ezra. 2019. “Documentary Media: Towards a Definition.” In The SAGE International Encyclopedia of Mass Media and Society, Debra L. Merskin, ed. Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications.
• Winton, Ezra and Svetla Turnin. 2017. “The Revolution Will Not be Festivalized: Documentary Film Festivals and Activism.” In Activist Film Festivals: Towards a Political Subject, Sonia Tascón and Tyson Wils, eds. Bristols & Chicago: Intellect.
• Waugh, Thomas and Ezra Winton. 2013. “Challenges for Change: Canada’s National Film Board,” with Thomas Waugh in The Documentary Film Book, Brian Winston, ed. London: BFI-Palgrave Macmillan.
• Wagman, Ira and Ezra Winton. 2012 and 2009. “Canadian Cultural Policy in the Age of Media Abundance: Old Challenges, New Technologies.” In Mediascapes: New Patterns in Canadian Communications, 4th and 3rd Editions. Nelson Education.
• Winton, Ezra and Jason Garrison. 2010. “If a Revolution Is Screened and No One Is There to See It, Does It Make a Sound? Grassroots Distribution from Challenge for Change to Cinema Politica.” In Challenge for Change: Activist Documentary at the National Film Board of Canada, Thomas Waugh, Ezra Winton and Michael Brendan Baker, eds. Montreal & Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press.

Essays, Articles and Reviews

• Winton, Ezra. 2022. “Doc Streams in Oceans of Content, POV Magazine, Spring/Summer, 2022.
• Link: https://povmagazine.com/doc-streams-in-oceans-of-content/
• Winton, Ezra. 2021. “Tiger Kings and Wretched Things: Algorithm Docs in the Platform Junkyard,” POV Magazine, Issue 114, Spring/Summer (May).
• Link: https://povmagazine.com/tiger-kings-and-wretched-things/
• Winton, Ezra. 2019. “10 Must-See Indigenous-Made Films of 2019,” The Nation, print and online (December).
• Winton, Ezra. 2017. “Unsettling the Nation: A Short History of Documentary Dissent in Canada,” POV Magazine, Issue 104, Spring (March).
• Winton, Ezra. 2017. “Review: Bee Nation,” POV Magazine, online.
• Winton, Ezra. 2017. “A Structured Inequity: Further Reflections following Hot Docs 2017 on Indigenous Representation in Canada’s Documentary Industry,” POV Magazine, online.
• Winton, Ezra. 2017. “The Slow Burn: Committed Canadian Documentaries at Hot Docs 2017,” POV Magazine, online.
• Winton, Ezra. 2013. “Upping the Anti: Documentary, Capitalism and Liberal Consensus in an Age of Austerity,” POV Magazine, Issue 92, Winter (December).
• Winton, Ezra. 2011. “New Nordic Documentary Cinema: Identity and Belonging Made Visible,” POV Magazine, Issue 82, Fall (September).
• Winton, Ezra. 2011. “A Film Festival Grows Up: Hot Docs and the Networked Festival Community,” POV Magazine, Issue 81, Spring (April).
• Winton, Ezra. 2010. “Multiculturalism, Radical Outcasts and Superheroes,” POV Magazine, Issue 80, Winter (December).
• Winton, Ezra. 2010. “Beyond the Textbook: Documentaries as a Tool for Teaching,” POV Magazine, Issue 77, Spring (April).
• Winton, Ezra. 2007. “A Documentary Decade,” POV Magazine, Issue 66, Winter (December).
• Winton, Ezra. 2006. “CinemaNet Europe: A Digital Doc Armada,” POV Magazine, Issue 64, Winter (December).

Interviews

• Winton, Ezra. 2016. “Curators in Conversation: Jesse Wente Discusses Indigenous Programming with Ezra Winton.” Vimeo.
• Winton, Ezra. 2015. “Curating the North: Documentary Screening Ethics and Inuit Representation in (Festival) Cinema,” Art Threat.
• Robbins, Papagena and Viviane Saglier. 2015. “Interview with Ezra Winton, Special Dossier on Documentary Film Festivals,” Synoptique, Special Issue, Other Networks: Expanding Film Festival Perspectives 3 (2). http://synoptique.hybrid.concordia.ca/index.php/main/article/view/74
• Winton, Ezra. 2014. “Painting, Resisting, Giggling: An Interview with George Littlechild,” Art Threat, online. http://artthreat.net/2014/04/painting-resisting-giggling-an-interview-with-george-littlechild/
• Winton, Ezra. 2013. “Butch Dykes: A Herstory Told in Zines (an Interview with Eloisa Aquino),” Art Threat, online. http://artthreat.net/2010/12/joe-sacco-interview-2/
• Winton, Ezra. 2013. “Artist Talk with Alanis Obomsawin,” Vimeo.
• Winton, Ezra. 2010. “Finkelstein Fury: A Conversation with American Radical’s Directors,” Art Threat, online. http://artthreat.net/2010/05/a-conversation-with-american-radicals-directors/
• Winton, Ezra. 2010. “Picking Through the Rubble of Memory: A Conversation with Journalist Joe Sacco – Parts One and Two,” Art Threat, online. http://artthreat.net/2010/12/joe-sacco-interview-1/ and

Documentary Production

2018

• Executive Producer, Documentary Futurism (15 short films combining documentary and the imaginary), 2017-2019.

2006

• Proposal co-writer, original idea, subject, Wal-Town: The Film, directed by Sergeo Kirby, Canada, digital, colour, 76 min. (Broadcast: CBC Television).

2005

• Co-Director, Swing, Canada, digital, colour, 5 min. (Broadcast: CBC Television).

2005

• Co-Director, The Art of Resistance, Canada, digital, colour, 5 min.

2000-2002

• Set carpenter, The X-Files, television series (1993-2002), created by Chris Carter.

Film Curating, Adjudicating

2021

• Co-curator, “Bring it Black: Films by Black Directors in Canada.”

2018

• Juror, “New Alchemists,” Festival du Nouveau Cinema, Montreal, Quebec, October 3-14.

2018

• Juror, “First Feature Film Competition,” Fantasia Film Festival, Montreal, Quebec, July 12-August 1.

2018

• Juror, “International Competition,” One World Human Rights Film Festival, Prague, Czech Repbulic, March 5-14.

2018

• Juror, “Panorama” Section, Festival du Nouveau Cinema, Montreal, Quebec, October 4-15.

2017

• Juror, “Magnus Isacsson Award,” RIDM, Montreal, Quebec, November 9-19.

2017

• Curator, “Indigenous Shorts from Canada,” Visible Evidence 24, Buenos Aires, Argentina, August 3.

2017

• Juror, DocuDays UA International Human Rights Film Festival, Kiev, Ukraine, March 20-27.

2015

• Curator, “Creativity, Colonization, Contestation: Indigenous Cultures and Peoples of the Americas on Screen and Stage,” Encuentro Conference and Festival, Montreal, Quebec, June 22-28.

Other Media Arts Work

2003-Present

• Co-founder and Director of Programming, Cinema Politica.

2015-Present

• Contributing Editor, POV Magazine.

2006-2015

• Co-founder and Editor, Art Threat Magazine.

2007-2012

• Executive Member – Concordia Documentary Centre.

2006-2010

• Board Member – Documentary Organization of Quebec.