Jennifer Abbott

Jennifer Abbott
Born (1965-01-08) January 8, 1965
Montreal, Canada
Occupation
  • Film director
  • Cinematographer
  • Film editor
  • Documentary filmmaker
Years active 1998–present

Jennifer Abbott (born 8 January 1965) is a Canadian director, cinematographer and editor, best known as a documentary filmmaker. Her first feature documentary, A Cow at My Table (1998), explores contemporary Western attitudes to livestock and meat production. More recently, she served as co-director and editor of the widely acclaimed documentary, The Corporation (2003), which critically examines large corporations in the modern world. That film won numerous international film awards, including a Genie for best documentary, an audience award from the Sundance Film Festival, and a Top Ten Films of the Year designation from the Toronto International Film Festival. Her previous work includes the experimental short Skinned, and as editor for Two Brides and a Scalpel: Diary of a Lesbian Marriage (1999). She is also the editor of the book Making Video 'In': The Contested Ground of Alternative Video on the West Coast. She has taught at the Emily Carr Institute of Art & Design in Vancouver.[1]

Career

Filmmaking

Abbott’s first film was A Cow at My Table (1998). The film addresses the ongoing battle between animal advocates and the meat industry in hopes to educate the Western consumer. Five years in production took Abbott across Canada, the United States, Australia, and New Zealand to meet with leading activists for the animal rights movement, as well as spokesmen from livestock industries.

In 2000, Abbott collaborated with director Mark Achbar to create Two Brides and a Scalpel: Diary of a Lesbian Marriage (2000). The documentary is a low-budget video diary of the first legally married lesbian couple in Canada. The film received multiple festival invitations, and was later broadcast on Canadian television networks.

Abbott continued her collaboration with Mark Achbar in 2003 when they co-directed the critically acclaimed documentary film, The Corporation (2003), written by Joel Bakan. The project began when Achbar and Bakan met at a funeral and realized they were both interested in globalization and its impact on society. The fact that no one had yet made a documentary on this issue shocked them both, so they decided to create one themselves. The film critically explores modern day corporations and the rise of dominant upper class institutions through the evaluation of corporate behavior towards society and the world at large. Through incorporating interviews with 40 corporate insiders and real-life case studies, Abbott hopes that the film will ultimately inspire strategies for change. During the editing process, Abbott went through over 800 pages of interview transcripts. These transcripts were digitized and narrowed down until she felt the material had narrative flow and would resonate emotionally with the audience. It was important to her that the documentary did not force ideas onto the audience, but rather to ask more questions and keep it open to interpretation.[2] During the filming of the documentary, Bakan wrote the book The Corporation: The Pathological Pursuit of Profit and Power.[3]

Abbott became involved with the documentary I Am (2011) after director Tom Shadyac saw The Corporation (2003) and invited Abbott to work as the editor on the film. The documentary explores Shadyac’s personal journey after a 2007 bicycle accident caused him to suffer from post-concussion syndrome. Abbott had an immediate connection with the film’s subject matter, beliefs, and core philosophy. Abbott worked remotely on the film from her home in Canada for two years.[4]

Awards and nominations

A Cow at My Table

The Corporation (2003)

I Am (2011)

Personal life

Abbott currently lives on Saltspring Island in British Columbia, Canada. She is busy working on her next film, and is concurrently starting her second career as an organic farmer.[4]

Filmography

Director

Editor

Producer

References

  1. ↑ IMDb.
  2. ↑ West, Dennis (2004). "The Life and Times of the Corporation: An Interview with Jennifer Abbott". Cineaste. Winter: 1–33.
  3. ↑ Libcom. Retrieved 2012-05-04.
  4. 1 2 "I Am" Official Site. Retrieved 2012-05-04.
  5. ↑ "The Corporation Film: Awards". Thecorporation.com. 2007-04-05. Retrieved 2013-06-23.
  6. ↑ Documentary Award: CIMA. Retrieved 2012-05-04.

External links

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