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20 new NFB projects underway. Documentary, animation and interactive works from across Canada.

PRESS RELEASE
14/04/2022

April 14, 2022 – Montreal – National Film Board of Canada (NFB)

The National Film Board of Canada (NFB) has greenlit 20 new productions and co-productions.

These works got underway between October and December 2021 while following all of the NFB’s health guidelines and protocols for the COVID-19 pandemic.

For more information on these and other projects currently in the works across NFB studios, visit the NFB Production web page.

Animation

Alambic 1  – 3 short films
Creators: Bogdan Anifrani, Brenda Lopez Zepeda, Beatriz Carvalho
Producer: Anne-Marie Bousquet | French Program Animation Studio | 100% NFB
Together, but individually, three emerging creators will have to create a very short animated film (between 45 seconds and two minutes long). The project will allow us to test a new lab-like approach inspired by the English Animation Program’s Hothouse initiative.

Aphasia  – short film
Director: Marielle Dalpé
Producer: Marc Bertrand | French Program Animation Studio | 100% NFB
Aphasia is a non-narrative short film that illustrates the language and speech disorders brought on by brain degeneration in people with Alzheimer’s disease.

Hommage à Jacques Drouin – short film
Director: Michèle Lemieux
Producer: Christine Noel | French Program Animation Studio | 100% NFB
In this very short (60-second) film, Michèle Lemieux will pay tribute to the famous filmmaker Jacques Drouin through the pinhole screen.

Hothouse 13 | 6 short films
Karla Monterrosa, Grace An, Lukas Conway, Louis Bodart, Noncedo Khumalo and Tarun Padmakumar
Producer: Maral Mohammadian | English Program Animation and Interactive Studio | 100% NFB
The 13th edition of the renowned Hothouse apprenticeship program centres around the theme of “100.” Six animation filmmakers from Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver are making a one-minute short in this three-month intensive program.

Wheetago War – medium-length film
Director: Amanda Strong
Co-producers: Amanda Strong (Spotted Fawn Productions) and Maral Mohammadian (English Program Animation and Interactive Studio)
Wheetago War taps into magical, visually compelling landscapes while addressing pressing sociopolitical, economic and environmental problems faced by industrial Western society. It is a film that helps bring us back to the moral compass of Indigenous oral storytelling.

Interactive

Texada – VR
Creators: Claire Sanford, Josephine Anderson
Producer: Nicholas Klassen | English Program Animation and Interactive Studio | 100% NFB
Featuring Texada Island, B.C., and its residents in cinematic VR, Texada is about the time it takes rocks to form, the time it takes to dig them up and the people who do the digging.

Corpus & The Wandering – web
Creator: Joanna Roy
Producer: Rob McLaughlin | English Program Animation and Interactive Studio | 100% NFB
A journey through the Canadian landscape created using a dancer’s body and a single iPhone. A unique self-portrait in the time of video-grids and Zoom calls.

Documentary

Aki – feature-length film
Director: Darlene Naponse
Producers: Jamie Manning (Aki the Film Inc. & Night Market), Darlene Naponse (Aki the Film Inc. & Baswewe Films) and Justine Pimlott (Ontario Studio)
Aki will explore narrative through a non-verbal, visual approach over the course of a seasonal year in the filmmaker’s Ojibway community in northern Ontario, Atikameksheng.

Stolen Time – feature-length film
Director: Helene Klodawsky
Producers: Ina Fichman (Intuitive Pictures) and Ariel Nasr (Quebec and Atlantic Studio) Outspoken and ardent, Melissa Miller, a personal injury lawyer representing some of Canada’s most vulnerable citizens, embarks on her most daring case to date.

Fôrets urbaines – feature-length film
Director: Anne-Marie Rocher
Producers: Denis McCready (Quebec, Canadian Francophonie and Acadian Documentary Studio) and Anne-Marie Rocher (Productions Testa Inc.)
This documentary profiles various innovative urban forest projects in Canada and looks at the progress being made in this area.

Iqaluit – medium-length film
Director: Sarah McNair-Landry
Producer: Denis McCready | Quebec, Canadian Francophonie and Acadian Documentary Studio | 100% NFB
Sarah McNair-Landry is an adventurer and filmmaker who owns an expedition company in Iqaluit, Nunavut. In the winter of 2020, Sarah and her partner Erik Boomer guided an 80-day expedition to Antarctica. They came back to a changed world, unable to travel due to COVID-19.

Governor General’s Performing Arts Awards short films

Director: Christine Chevarie-Lessard
Producer: Marc Bertrand | French Program Animation Studio | 100% NFB
A short film honouring dancer, teacher, choreographer and somatic movement educator Linda Rabin, a 2022 Governor General’s Performing Arts Award laureate.

Director: Pascal Boutroy
Producer: Denis McCready | Quebec, Canadian Francophonie and Acadian Documentary Studio | 100% NFB
A short film celebrating Michelle Smith, a dedicated and tireless supporter of Canadian performing arts, recipient of the 2022 Ramon John Hnatyshyn Award for Voluntarism in the Performing Arts.

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Associated Links

NFB Production web page

French version here | Version française ici.

Media Relations

  • About the NFB

    The National Film Board of Canada (NFB) is one of the foremost creative centres in the world. As a public producer and distributor of Canadian content, a talent incubator and a lever for Canada’s creative sector, the NFB produces nearly one hundred titles every year—from socially engaged documentaries and auteur animation to groundbreaking interactive works and participatory experiences. It was among the first cultural organizations to make clear commitments to gender parity; to launch an action plan with the goal of supporting Indigenous perspectives; and to establish concrete actions and targets that promote diversity, equity and inclusion. In addition to serving as a reference point around the world for digitization and preservation practices, the NFB ensures the long-term conservation of its works as part of the audiovisual heritage of all Canadians.