Creative Process

Each year, Level 1 students in the Film and Media Production program at Algonquin College take on the challenge of creating original documentaries.

At the start of the semester, around fifty students pitch their ideas. After a selection process, only a handful are chosen to move forward. Production teams are quickly formed, allowing filming to begin as soon as possible. Throughout the process, students apply their skills and classroom learning in a real-world setting, gaining hands-on experience in documentary filmmaking.

Selected projects are broadcast in December on PBS Watertown, an American television station serving northern New York State and Eastern Ontario.

Origin of the project idea

Samuel A. Pilon, an 18-year-old francophone living in Clarence-Rockland, has always dreamed of studying broadcasting and film production since elementary school. With that in mind, he enrolled in the Production télévisuelle et cinématographique program at Collège La Cité in Ottawa.

In April 2025, his study plans quickly changed when he was told that his program was being cancelled. Without any further explanation or transparency from La Cité originally, Samuel found himself reconsidering his options in a short period of time. He had two options: move to Québec or study in his secondary language. He decided to study in a similar program at Algonquin College.

At the end of May 2025, he denounced La Cité College's decision at an OPSEU press conference.

Being concerned, Pilon was determined to find out the reasons behind these cuts. That's how Samuel discovered the seriousness of the unprecedented manufactured financial crisis in the public education system in Ontario. Seeing the terrible statistics of this year's cuts and Doug Ford's plan to privatize education, he decided to make a documentary on the subject in order to raise awareness among as many people as possible.

"Behind these budget cuts are students, employers, workers, teachers, families, and communities. It is our future that is at stake." said Samuel A. Pilon, Creator of The Price of Underfunded Education.