This February, Haldimand Museums will be welcoming internationally recognized filmmaker Graeme Bachiu and iconic CHCH-TV news anchor Connie Smith to present an oral history/interviewing workshop.

This special workshop, to be held at Edinburgh Square Heritage & Cultural Centre on Saturday, February 29 (1pm to 4pm), will cover the skills needed to film and interview subjects to preserve oral histories.

“In every family, stories are passed down from generation to generation, occasionally graining details with each telling,” said Anne Unyi, Haldimand County’s Supervisor of Heritage & Culture. “Preserving those stories through film & one-on-one interviews has become much easier with technological advancements, but using these technologies and knowing how to ask the right questions are skills a lot of us need help developing,” Unyi added.

In part one of the workshop, filmmaker Graeme Bachiu will teach participants the basic camera and interviewing skills they will need to collect and preserve oral histories. The Oral History Workshop will present both technical and practical hands-on approaches to conducting interviews. In the second half of the workshop, Graeme will collaborate with one of the best interviewers in the business – former CHCH-TV anchor Connie Smith – to teach a master class in interviewing.

Graeme Bachiu, an internationally recognized documentary filmmaker with over 25 years of film and TV experience. Graeme’s work has been shown on CTV, CBC, CHCH-TV, CNN and NBC and his documentary short films have been screened at film festivals around the world. Graeme has a deep interest in history and preserving stories of the past.

The workshop is available to anyone with an interest in undertaking an oral history project, learning basic principles of filmmaking or becoming a better interviewer. Cost for the program is $20.00 per person. Registration may be completed online at link.haldimandcounty.ca or in person at any Haldimand County office using program code 10459.