Magnus Isacsson

Film and Television

Montreal documentary filmmaker Magnus Isacsson follows his subjects for as long as their compelling stories require. In his 1996 award-winning film, Power, he chronicled the five years it took the Cree to defeat Hydro-Québec’s Great Whale project. In The Choir Boys, another award-winning film, he shot footage of Montreal’s choir of homeless men for two years. He not only captured the choir’s enthusiastic receptions but also its internal conflicts. In two separate films, Union Trouble – A Cautionary Tale, and Maxime, McDuff and McDo, Isacsson documented attempts in Quebec to unionize McDonald’s restaurants. He explored protest politics in two further films, first in Pressure Point – Inside the Montreal Blockade, and then in View from the Summit, a feature-length documentary that involved directing seven film crews during the Summit of the Americas in Quebec City. Isacsson studied political science, history, and cinema in Montreal and began his career as a broadcast journalist working for “The Fifth Estate,” “Le Point,” and “Contrechamp.” (PF)