Documentary filmmaker enters law school to further his focus on social injustices

Documentary filmmaker Scott Parker has traded-in his tapes and field tents for the ties and textbooks of law school.

The first-year law student owns and manages an Edmonton-based media company that specializes in post-production (editing, visual and audio effects) and filmmaking. Since the 1990s, he’s worked on music videos, TV series episodes and documentaries. In the past 10 years, his focus has been on social documentary filmmaking, as a member of award-winning film teams which have won multiple Canadian Screen Awards (formerly the Gemini Awards) by showcasing injustices around the world.

“I was motivated to go to law school most by my experiences with marginalized communities that were excluded from arguing their case,” said Parker.

As a film editor, the documentaries he’s worked on include Anti-Social Limited (2014), about a former inmate with anti-social personality disorder; Broke (2009), which shows society’s most vulnerable through the eyes of an Edmonton pawnbroker; The Ward (2014), an exploration of Alberta’s organ donor shortage; Who Cares? (2012), about sex workers; and Vanishing Point (2012), which is about two Inuit communities of the circumpolar North.

A film that Parker wrote, directed and filmed himself, The Grasslands Project (2016), showcases 10 short stories from the Prairies across different cultures. During filming, Parker embedded himself in the small Saskatchewan town of Eastend for six months to better understand local stories and issues by establishing trusting relationships with locals. Using this technique, he was able to film intimate stories that reflected on rural life across the Prairies.

NGO Consultant

Additionally, Parker has worked with marginalized communities as a volunteer for decades. Recently, he has been helping a Swiss NGO move a rural Botswana community from a hunting economy to an ecotourism destination, in response to government bans on traditional hunting sites.

Parker has master’s degrees in both business administration and in conflict analysis and management. He has put both of these degrees to work as a business consultant for organizations in conflict-sensitive environments, such as Botswana, Zimbabwe, and Zutshwa in southern Africa. He’s turned relationships between NGOs and rural communities from adversarial to collaborative, has helped locals organize to change their local economy sustainably, and has raised funds for infrastructure projects.

Parker hopes to use his law school training to further the social causes he has worked on around the world.

Since he has lived in many isolated communities as a filmmaker, 2020’s challenges of studying remotely while social distancing are not as onerous for Parker as some students are finding them. As well, recorded lectures are giving him the flexibility to schedule his semester based on the needs of his elderly father, for whom he is providing caretaking.

But attending law school is still a shift in routine for someone who is used to living in the bush more often than the city.

“I haven’t had a tie on in 30 years,” said Parker. “I have lived a feral life out in the woods. This is a big change.”