Documentary Masterclass: Filming Community, Place and Wildlife
Join On Screen Manitoba for a special masterclass with Gabriela Osio Vanden, Jack Weisman and Michael Code, the filmmaking team behind the acclaimed feature documentary Nuisance Bear—winner of the Grand Jury Prize for Documentary at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival.
Date: Monday, September 28, 2026
Time: 6:00 pm - 9:00 pm
Venue: Dave Barber Cinematheque, 100 Arthur Street, Winnipeg
Presenters: Jack Weisman and Gabriela Osio Vanden (directors and cinematographers), and Michael Code (producer and cinematographer).
Tickets: $20 OSM Members | $25 Non-Members
The event also includes a screening of Nuisance Bear, giving participants the opportunity to experience the film on the big screen before hearing directly from the filmmakers about the decisions behind it.
What to expect
Drawing on their experience making Nuisance Bear in and around Churchill, Manitoba, Osio Vanden, Weisman and Code will explore how filmmakers approach a place they do not call home, build relationships with the people who do, and recognize the assumptions and power they bring with them.
Using the film as a case study, the masterclass will examine:
filming as an “outside eye” and understanding your own positionality
research, relationship-building, trust and consent
collaboration and responsibility to the communities represented
ethical wildlife cinematography
observation versus intervention
how the presence of a camera can affect human-wildlife encounters
avoiding spectacle, simplification and predetermined narratives
how camera position, perspective, sound, editing and narrative framing shape meaning.
Who is this masterclass for?
This masterclass is designed for documentary filmmakers, producers, directors, cinematographers and other storytellers working with people, communities, places and environments.
It will be especially relevant for filmmakers interested in documentary ethics, observational filmmaking, community-based storytelling, wildlife cinematography and the relationship between creative choices and representation.
About Nuisance Bear
In Nuisance Bear, a polar bear is forced to navigate a human world of tourists, wildlife officers and hunters as its ancient migration collides with modern life. As a sacred predator is branded a nuisance, the film raises a larger question: who truly belongs in this shared landscape?
Nuisance Bear premiered in the U.S. Documentary Competition at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival, where it won the Grand Jury Prize for Documentary.
The film is an A24 presentation, in association with the Ninmah Foundation and the DeNovo Initiative, and a Documist and Rise Films production.
View the full production credits and watch the trailer here.
Meet the filmmakers
Gabriela Osio Vanden, director and cinematographer
Gabriela is an award-winning Venezuelan-Canadian cinematographer and filmmaker based in Toronto whose work spans documentary, narrative film and television, and commercial projects.
Her work has screened at festivals including TIFF, Camerimage, SXSW, IDFA, Sheffield DocFest and True/False.
Osio Vanden co-directed and shot the original Nuisance Bear short film, which received the Critics Choice Award for Best Short Documentary, an Outstanding Nonfiction Short Award at the Cinema Eye Honors and a place on the shortlist for the 95th Academy Awards.
She returned as co-director and cinematographer of the feature-length Nuisance Bear.
Jack Weisman, director and cinematographer
Jack is a filmmaker whose creative nonfiction work combines visually distinctive cinematography with formally adventurous documentary storytelling.
His films have screened at festivals including Sundance, TIFF and SXSW.
Weisman co-directed the original Nuisance Bear short and returned with Gabriela Osio Vanden to direct and shoot the feature-length film, which premiered at Sundance in 2026 and won the festival’s Grand Jury Prize for Documentary.
He is also a co-founder of Documist, a production company whose work has received Sundance, Primetime Emmy and Peabody recognition.
Weisman previously served as an executive producer on The Territory, which premiered at Sundance and received both the World Cinema Documentary Audience Award and a Special Jury Prize.
Mike Code, producer and cinematographer
Michael Code is an accomplished cinematographer and member of the Sayisi Dene First Nation, bringing over a decade of filmmaking experience from Northern Canada and beyond. Michael is a seasoned wilderness filmmaker, hunter, and outdoorsman. His expertise in capturing the rugged beauty of remote locations is complemented by his ability to work across multiple roles within small, versatile crews—a necessity in wilderness filmmaking.
Michael has worked on feature films such as Polaris and Yukon: River of Life, as well as tv series like The Nature of Things, Arctic Secrets, The Amazing Race Canada, Gold Rush, and Nuisance Bear.
If you have questions about the masterclass, please contact Peter Nielsen, Programs Coordinator: peter@onscreenmanitoba.com.
Funding provided by the Government of Canada and the Government of Manitoba.