CINEMA POLITICA is a non-profit media arts organization based in Montreal with nearly 100 screening locations all over the world (as of September 2011). Each chapter ("local") screens independent political documentaries for free or by donation to audiences, with guest filmmakers and speakers often invited to participate. Cinema Politica claims to be the "largest volunteer-run, community and campus-based documentary-screening network in the world."

Cinema Politica (CP) started out as a small screening series in 2001 run by Ezra Winton and based at Langara College in British Columbia, Canada. CP was then re-launched in Montreal at Concordia University in 2003 where Executive Director Svetla Turnin joined with Winton to re-vision the project as an incorporated non-profit network and organization with several chapters throughout Canada and abroad.

Most CP locals are based on campuses in Canada and Europe, but the organization has locations off-campus (community locals) and in other parts of the world including Latin America and Africa.

Cinema Politica's Mandate

Cinema Politica states that its mandate is to support "alternative, independent, and radical political film and video, and the artists who dare to devote time, passion and resources to telling stories from the margins. We program works that feature under-represented characters and tell stories which confront and challenge conventional fiction and documentary narratives."

Supporters

CP is mainly funded by the Canada Council for the Arts, membership fees from locals, fundraising and donations from audience members. CP has partnerships with the following distributors: the National Film Board of Canada

National Film Board of Canada

The National Film Board of Canada is Canada's twelve-time Academy Award-winning public film producer and distributor. An agency of the Government of Canada, the NFB produces and distributes documentary, animation, alternative drama and digital media productions...

, Mongrel Media

Mongrel Media

Mongrel Media is a Canadian film distributor established in 1994. It is also the exclusive Canadian theatrical distributor for Sony Pictures Classics and is represented in Quebec by Métropole Films Distribution.- External links :*...

, Women Make Movies

Women Make Movies

Women Make Movies, established in 1972, is a non-profit media arts organization based in New York City. The organization distributes and assists with the production, promotion, exhibition of independent films by and about women.-Film catalog:...

, les Films du 3 mars, Java Films, and others.

The Cinema Politica Audience Award

Each year Cinema Politica nominates the 10 most-screened films in the network for the CP Audience Award. Audiences members across the network choose the winner.

Previous winners:

• 2008: Roadsworth: Crossing the line
• 2009: American Radical: The Trials of Norman Finkelstein
  American Radical: the trials of Norman Finkelstein
  American Radical: The Trials of Norman Finkelstein is a 2009 documentary film about the life of the American academic Norman Finkelstein, directed and produced by David Ridgen and Nicolas Rossier...
  
  
• 2010: Dreamland (2009 film)
  Dreamland (2009 film)
  Dreamland is a 2009 Icelandic documentary film about politics, environmental preservation and damming, focusing on The Kárahnjúkar Hydropower Project and its environmental impact. The movie is based on the book Dreamland: A Self-Help Manual for a Frightened Nation by Andri Snær Magnason...
  
  

The Alanis Obomsawin Award for Commitment to Community and Resistance

This award if presented to a Canadian filmmaker who has "has shown a commitment to community and resistance in documentary filmmaking." The award is names after the prolific National Film Board director Alanis Obomsawin

Alanis Obomsawin

Alanis Obomsawin, OC is a Canadian filmmaker of Abenaki descent. Born in New Hampshire, and raised primarily in Quebec, she has produced and directed many National Film Board of Canada documentaries on First Nations culture and history...

. The first Alanis Award was given to John Greyson

John Greyson

John Greyson is a Canadian filmmaker, whose work frequently deals with gay themes. Greyson is also a video artist, writer and activist; he is currently a professor at York University, where he teaches film and video theory and film production and editing.-Background:Greyson was born the son of...

 in March 2011.

Cinema Politica Board of Directors & Advisory Committee

Cinema Politica is governed by a board of directors, and is aided in their work by the members of an advisory committee. Currently, they are made up of:

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

• Michael Lithgow // Writer; Video Artist; PhD candidate in Media Studies (Carleton)
• Inês Lopes // PhD, Education consultant; Founder of CP-UQAM
• Liz Miller // Filmmaker (The Water Front); Assoc. Professor (Concordia)
• Thomas Waugh // Professor in the Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema (Concordia)
• Ezra Winton // Director of Programming and Founder - Cinema Politica; Editor - Art Threat; PhD candidate in Media Studies (Carleton University)

ADVISORY COMMITTEE

• Tracey Deer
  Tracey Deer
  Tracey Deer is a Mohawk film director and newspaper publisher. Deer has written and directed several award-winning rojects for the Aboriginal-run film and television production company, Rezolution Pictures, as well as her own independent short work...
  
  
• Sean Farnel
• John Greyson
  John Greyson
  John Greyson is a Canadian filmmaker, whose work frequently deals with gay themes. Greyson is also a video artist, writer and activist; he is currently a professor at York University, where he teaches film and video theory and film production and editing.-Background:Greyson was born the son of...
  
  
• Sylvia Hamilton
• Peter Wintonick
  Peter Wintonick
  Peter Wintonick is an independent documentary filmmaker based in Montreal. A winner of the 2006 Governor General's Award in Visual and Media Arts, former Thinker in Residence for the Premier of South Australia, prolific award winning filmmaker, he is one of Canada's best known international...
  
  
• b.h. Yael