What is a Toposcope?
A toposcope is a structure often found atop a hill or mountain that provides reference markers of the surrounding landscape--These markers may include cardinal points, arrows, or a topographical map. Toposcopes help guide the observer's (& filmmaker's) eye towards new horizons.
Nicolás Gulino is the filmmaker behind Toposcope Films. Born in Buenos Aires to parents from Argentina and Paraguay, he grew up in Montréal, Canada, where he now lives with his wife, two kids and a rather large dog.
He comes to documentary filmmaking through a rich background in the social sciences, humanities, and education. He holds a B.A. in Anthropology and Hispanic Studies from McGill University (Canada), an M.Ed. in Education from the University of Oregon (USA), and a Ph.D. in Educational Psychology (Psychopédagogie) and Adult Education from the Université de Montréal.
Nicolás has worked as a teacher, university lecturer, and outreach educator across settings, including at the University of Oregon’s Pine Mountain Observatory, where he first explored the art of storytelling through lenses, projectors, and telescopes—an experience that sparked his fascination with visual narrative and filmmaking.
Back in Montréal, he trained in documentary production at Main Film, the Canadian Screen Training Centre, and the Summer Institute of Film and Television (Ottawa), while learning directly from filmmakers such as Peter Wintonick, Garry Beitel, Harold Crooks, and Peter Svatek.
His filmography spans artist portrait films, experimental works, and so-called “legacy films”—projects that preserve personal and collective memory through cinematic storytelling. His first feature, Don Policarpo & I: Travels With a Puppeteer, screened in Boston and Washington D.C. He later received a Canada Council for the Arts Production and Travel Grant for Corner Chronicles, which was selected for the Ethnografilm Festival in Paris.
Alongside filmmaking, Nicolás is an educational researcher and visual ethnographer at the Centre de recherche de l’Institut universitaire de gériatrie de Montréal (CRIUGM), where he directs the Research Group on Interprofessional Collaboration in Partnership with Patients and Caregivers. His work bridges socio-constructivist approaches, Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (CHAT), and Expansive Learning, using visual and participatory methods to study experiential knowledge and interprofessional collaboration in healthcare.
Through both his research and his films, he continues to explore how images and stories can deepen our understanding of the social world, learning, and the shared experience of care.