Episode 189: Carmen Pollard

Carmen Pollard is a documentary filmmaker, editor, producer, and story consultant whose filmography includes For Dear Life, a feature-length documentary in which she sensitively followed her cousin, Vancouver theatre producer James Pollard, in the three and a half years after his terminal cancer diagnosis, and Dancehalls, Deejays & Distortion, an upbeat 10-part series that amplifies little-known stories from B.C.'s eclectic music scene. Carmen’s latest is Militant Mother, a short film about a group of mothers from the Raymur social housing project in Vancouver whose children were forced to cross perilous train tracks in order to get to school. After months of advocating for a safe crossing to no avail, these 25 mothers decided to make their voices heard by blockading CN Rail. Militant Mother screens online and in-cinema at the 2021 Vancouver International Film Festival. Carmen joins Sabrina for a thoughtful and fascinating conversation about Militant Mother, representation in the documentary sphere, and the toll that telling stories about traumatized people can have on documentary filmmakers. Episode sponsor: Fish Flight Entertainment