Michael B. MacDonald

Though he does have a beard, Professor MacDonald is not a tweed suit wearing dour academic, rather his passion for cinema and music has led him to the streets, showcasing the hardscrabble life of artists attempting to win fans one gig at a time.” KUA radio, Alberta

Michael B. MacDonald is an award-winning filmmaker and associate professor of music at the MacEwan University Faculty of Fine Arts and Communications in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. His films have been screened in more than 50 film festivals and he has won documentary and experimental film awards. He has published 17 films and music videos and three books including Playing for Change: Music Festivals as Arts-based Community Learning and Development (2016), Remix and Life Hack in HipHop: Towards a Critical Pedagogy of Popular Music (2016), and co-edited A History of Progressive Music and Youth Culture (2020).

Michael is a member of the program committee for KISMIF an international conference on DIY Music and Culture, member of the scientific committee for combArt, an active member of the International Council of Traditional Music Study Group on Audiovisual Ethnomusicology, co-founder of the Justice4Reel Media Advocacy Free School, and the Film and Video Review Editor for the Yearbook for Traditional Music, the journal of the International Council for Traditional Music.