Bruno Lessard
Dr. Bruno Lessard is a Professor in the School of Image Arts at Toronto Metropolitan University. Dr. Lessard is the author of The Art of Subtraction: Digital Adaptation and the Object Image (University of Toronto Press, 2017), co-editor of the collection Critical Distance in Documentary Media (Palgrave Macmillan, 2018), and author of Wang Bing: Chinese Documentary between History and Labour (Hong Kong University Press, 2023). He has also co-edited a teaching media dossier on documentary pedagogy for the Journal of Cinema and Media Studies. His monograph on Franco-Cambodian filmmaker Rithy Panh, titled Rithy Panh. La remise en récit du génocide cambodgien (Rithy Panh: Re-narrating the Cambodian Genocide), will be published in 2026. As a photo-based artist, Dr. Lessard has focused on changing urban landscapes in Canada and China, and he has sought to revive night photography and non-figurative photographic practices within a documentary context. His projects can be found at www.brunolessard.com (external link)
Recent publications
BOOKS
Rithy Panh. La remise en récit du génocide cambodgien [Rithy Panh. Re-narrating the Cambodian Genocide]. (forthcoming 2026)
The Cinema of Wang Bing: Chinese Documentary between History and Labor. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2023.
Critical Distance in Documentary Media, edited by Gerda Cammaer, Blake Fitzpatrick, and Bruno Lessard. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2018.
The Art of Subtraction: Digital Adaptation and the Object Image. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2017.
Sample of supervised ComCult projects:
2024 - Chris Hugelmann, PhD. “Making Identity and Community: An Exploration into the Interfaces and Interactions in Online Digital Games.”
2021 - Peter Zakrzewski; Dissertation: Designing the XR Medium: Five Rhetorical Perspectives for the Ecology of Human+Computer Networks
2020 - Gabriele Aroni; Dissertation: The Virtual Capriccio: the Semiotics of Architecture in Digital Games
2016 - David Murphy; Dissertation: Struggling with Simulations: Decoding the Neoliberal Politics of Digital Games
2015 - Katherine Marie Hill; Major Research Paper: Reel to Relic to Revival: The Future of Celluloid Film Projection
2013 - Scott Deeming; Thesis: Abandonware, Commercial Expatriation and Post-Commodity Fan Practice: a Study of the Sega Dreamcraft
ComCult Teaching Actvities
CC 8836 Selected Topics in Media and Culture
CC 8962 Language and Narrative in Film Video Movies
CC 9904 Perspectives in Commun and Culture Studies