For Gemini-nominated cinematographer Alain Dostie (best photography in a dramatic program or series for Alliance Atlantis’ four-hour miniseries Nuremberg), the most satisfying aspect of the filmmaking process is collaboration. ‘I don’t think I could ever do something alone. I need to work in a team,’ he says. ‘When a set goes well it’s wonderful. You forget everything.’

Dostie’s collaborative skills have served him in a wide range of projects dating from his days at the National Film Board in the early 1960s to his Genie Award-winning cinematography for Thirty-two Short Films About Glenn Gould and The Red Violin.

But prepping and shooting a film is intense work and can take up to a year to complete. ‘When I finish, I’m drained like an old lemon,’ says Dostie. ‘I have to forget about movies for a while, do something else, read, do woodworking, cook, anything.’

Since Nuremberg, he has completed the feature 15 Fevrier 1839 (with director Pierre Falardeau) and begun work on The Magician’s Wife.

How does Dostie know when he’s hit a cinematic home run? ‘I ask myself, ‘Did we succeed or not?’ I mean by that, ‘Did we put on the screen the intention we had in the beginning?’ ‘ Dostie says. ‘I am very proud of Thirty-two Short Films. I think it’s a case where we did exactly what we planned.’

Dostie began taking photos when he was 12 years old and continued to develop his eye at the NFB, where he started as an assistant cameraman lensing everything from documentaries to educational and scientific films. That was followed by projects like the Denys Arcand films La Maudite Galette and Gina.

‘I worked with [Arcand] on all his early films,’ says Dostie. In the last 10 years, the DOP has added TV movies and miniseries to the list, like the Gemini-nominated Nuremberg. Dostie can’t think of anything he’d rather do. ‘It’s always been my job and my hobby at the same time.’ *