I was born in Cumberland, BC, on Vancouver Island, K’ómoks First Nation territory. Since 2003 I’ve been living on the unceded territory of the Kanien’kehá:ka (Mohawk) on the island of Tiohtiá:ke, or Montreal, Quebec. I’m a scholar, writer and curator of Dutch and English descent. I’m currently Assistant Professor, Journalism and Mass Communication at the American University in Bulgaria – the best place I’ve had the privilege to work as a professor, ever. Since completing a PhD in Communication Studies at Carleton University in December 2013 my research and teaching has focused on documentary media, film festivals, curating, settler/Indigenous film and media, alternative media, social movements and media, and what I call “screen ethics.” My dissertation interrogated the various cultural, political and ethical contexts that converge at the Hot Docs International Film Festival. A book version of my diss has been under construction for some time (now in post-peer review stage) and will be published by McGill-Queen’s University Press. My newest publication is a timely collection of essays, interviews and roundtable discussions co-edited with the inimitable Dana Claxton and titled Indigenous Media Arts in Canada: Making, Caring, Sharing (published by Wilfird-Laurier University Press). I’m the co-founder (with Svetla Turnin) and Director of Programming of Cinema Politica, a non-profit grassroots exhibition and dedicated distribution film organization that has been going strong since 2003. I’m a Contributing Editor with POV Magazine where my work is published with some frequency. Plenty more books, chapters and articles are listed in my writing section.

I was born in Cumberland, BC, on beautiful Vancouver Island, K’ómoks First Nation territory. I now live on the unceded territory of the Kanien’kehá:ka (Mohawk) on the island of Tiohtiá:ke, or Montreal, in la belle province, Quebec. I am a settler scholar, curator, writer and critic of Dutch and English descent. I am currently a Visiting Scholar at Lakehead University, at the Reimagining Value Action Lab (RiVAL), where I’m conducting research on Indigenous representation in Canada’s media arts and the ethical dimension of film circulation and reception. I was recently an Assistant Professor of Film Studies (Visiting) at Concordia University’s Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema, where I taught too many courses to count on all available fingers and toes. I completed a PhD in Communication Studies at Carleton University in December 2013. My research and teaching is focused on documentary, Indigenous film and media, alternative media, social movements and media, film festivals, and what I call “screen ethics.” My dissertation research investigated the various elements that converge at the Hot Docs International Film Festival, with a focus on the culture of documentary and the logic of capital, expressed through three interlocking forces: circulation, consumption and resistance. A book version of my dissertation is currently under construction and will be published by McGill-Queen’s University Press (and in which I will add a fourth interlocking force: colonialism). I’m the co-founder (with Svetla Turnin) and Director of Programming of Cinema Politica, a non-profit media arts organization that is the world’s largest campus and community based documentary screening network (but we also love and show political fiction). I’m a contributing editor with POV Magazine where my work is published with some frequency. I’m the proud co-editor, along with Thomas Waugh and Michael Brendan Baker, of the 600-page door stopper Challenge for Change: Activist Documentary at the National Film Board of Canada (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2010). Other recent academic contributions appear in Activist Film Festivals: Towards a Political Subject, The Documentary Film Book, the Canadian Journal of Communication, and Mediascapes: New Patterns in Canadian Communication. I’m a a nature-lover at heart but remain fixed in the concrete crag of cityscapes, where I trade mountains and ocean for art and politics.

Welcome to my corner of the web. I was born in Cumberland, BC, on Vancouver Island, K’ómoks First Nation territory. Since 2003 I’ve been living on the unceded territory of the Kanien’kehá:ka (Mohawk) on the island of Tiohtiá:ke, or Montreal, Quebec. I’m a scholar, writer and curator of Dutch and English descent. I’m currently Assistant Professor, Journalism and Mass Communication at the American University in Bulgaria – the best place I’ve had the privilege to work as a professor, ever. Since completing a PhD in Communication Studies at Carleton University in December 2013 my research and teaching has focused on documentary media, film festivals, curating, settler/Indigenous film and media, alternative media, social movements and media, and what I call “screen ethics.” My dissertation interrogated the various cultural, political and ethical contexts that converge at the Hot Docs International Film Festival. A book version of my diss has been under construction for some time (now in post-peer review stage) and will be published by McGill-Queen’s University Press. My newest publication is a timely collection of essays, interviews and roundtable discussions co-edited with the inimitable Dana Claxton and titled Indigenous Media Arts in Canada: Making, Caring, Sharing (published by Wilfird-Laurier University Press). I’m the co-founder (with Svetla Turnin) and Director of Programming of Cinema Politica, a non-profit grassroots exhibition and dedicated distribution film organization that has been going strong since 2003. I’m a Contributing Editor with POV Magazine where my work is published with some frequency. Plenty more books, chapters and articles are listed in my writing section. If you want to contact me by email, type my first and last name together along with the @ symbol, followed by iCloud dot com. You can also sign up below to receive my relatively infrequent newsletter.