Oh! The Misery and the Joy! A Conversation with Ric Esther Bienstock

Montreal-born Ric Esther Bienstock is one of Canada's most decorated documentary filmmakers. In her cabinet are Emmys, Amnesty International Awards, back-to-back Edward R. Murrow Awards and the Gordon Sinclair Award. She is an Order of Canada recipient and, in the fall of 2024, was inducted into the Emmy Awards' Silver Circle.

Ric's ability to make space for complexity has proven to be the key to her gaining access to so many difficult communities and situations throughout her long career. Her current work in progress is the feature doc Speechless, which has Alex Gibney signed on as executive producer.

BC: You just got the Emmy Award. Congratulations!

REB: Thank you. The first thing I thought was that I wish my parents were alive. It was just an incredible honour being recognized by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences in the US.

BC: Tell me about Speechless.

REB: It started with an article I read in the Atlantic in 2015 called "The Coddling of the American Mind." I was interested in how students were becoming increasingly resistant to engaging with ideas that challenged or offended them. I did a demo in 2017 about the intersections of free speech, viewpoint diversity, academic freedom, and how fundamental they are to democracy.

BC: Take me back to the beginning of your career.

REB: My first job was with Simcha Jacobovici. Then I applied to U of T law. But an old friend suggested we do a film on Canadian development projects in Africa. So, to my parents' chagrin, I decided to go to Africa instead of law school. Thirteen weeks in Africa. We went to Malawi, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Burundi, Zaire, Mali, Kenya and Ivory Coast. There were no cell phones, no computers. We had to do the research on the ground.

REB: I don't really enjoy the process. I'm miserable when I'm shooting. I'm miserable when I'm editing. I'm miserable when I'm writing. I'm only not miserable when I'm finished. But I've been very fortunate to be able to be miserable making documentaries all these years.

This article originally appeared in Issue 123 of POV.