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AFF announces complete schedule for its 2016 NFB Showcase. Seventeen NFB films featured―including seven from Atlantic Canada.

PRESS RELEASE
24/08/2016

NFB Schedule - AFF

August 24, 2016 – Halifax – National Film Board of Canada (NFB)

The Atlantic Film Festival (AFF) has announced it will feature 17 National Film Board of Canada (NFB) films in a special showcase of the best in NFB animation and documentary from across Atlantic Canada and the country, from September 15 to 22, 2016.

Here’s a quick look at the complete selection of NFB titles at the festival, including screening times and venues:

From Atlantic Canada:

As previously announced, the AFF will feature world premieres of three NFB Atlantic films:

  • Mabel, directed by Teresa MacInnes, premieres on Sept. 18 at 7:00 p.m. at the Oxford Theatre, as part of the Reel East Coast Shorts Gala. An animated documentary exploring the power of community and friendship in Hubbards, Nova Scotia, Mabel screens again the next day, on Sept. 19 at 2 p.m., as part of a selection of NFB shorts at Park Lane Theatre 2.
  • The Sept. 19 NFB shorts program also features the premiere of Mystery of the Secret Room, a young girl’s journey of adversity through the power of imagination, directed by Newfoundland’s Wanda Nolan, with New Brunswick’s Claire Blanchet as art director. This animated short screens again on Sept. 22 at 9:15 p.m. at the Park Lane 3, as part of the Reel East Coast Shorts Program.
  • Director John Hopkins’ PEI documentary Bluefin, a tale of epic stakes set in “the tuna capital of the world,” premieres on Sept. 21 at noon at Park Lane Theatre 2.

Festival-goers have three chances to catch the Atlantic premiere of HAND.LINE.COD., a film by Newfoundland director Justin Simms that takes audiences back to Fogo Island almost 50 years after Colin Low’s legendary Challenge for Change films. This 13-minute film screens Sept. 19 at 2 p.m. at the Park Lane 2; Sept. 19 at 7 p.m. at the Oxford, preceding the gala presentation of Theater of Life; as well as Sept. 22 at 9:15 p.m. at the Park Lane 3, as part of the Reel East Coast Shorts Program.

Little Big Bang is a short work by emerging St. John’s animator Duncan Major, produced through the NFB’s Hothouse program, which also screens Sept. 19 at 2 p.m. at the Park Lane 2.

The WFNS 40th Anniversary Short Program is featuring two classic NFB Atlantic films, Sylvia Hamilton’s Speak It! From the Heart of Black Nova Scotia and Janice Platt’s Atlantis Films/NFB short drama The Trumpeter, on Sept. 21 starting at 6:45 p.m. at Park Lane Theatre 3.

NFB films from across Canada

St. John’s chef Jeremy Charles joins 60 of the world’s best chefs from across Canada and around the world in Peter Svatek’s Theater of Life, making its Canadian premiere on Sept. 19, at 7 p.m. at the Oxford Theatre. Co-produced by Triplex Films and the NFB in association with Phi Films, this feature doc puts a human face on the environmental impact of food waste.

Nine more NFB films from across Canada will be featured at the Park Lane Theatres, as part of the NFB Showcase.

The program includes four more NFB feature docs: Gun Runners, directed by Anjali Nayar, the story of two North Kenyan warriors who’ve traded their rifles for sneakers to become professional marathoners  (Sept. 20, 2 p.m., Theatre 2); Niobe Thompson’s The Gift (ID Productions/NFB), taking audiences inside an organ-transplant hospital, where life and death are in constant collision (Sept. 20, 4:15 p.m., Theatre 2); We Can’t Make the Same Mistake Twice, the latest from legendary documentarian Alanis Obomsawin, exploring a landmark court case over welfare services provided to First Nations children (Sept. 21, 2 p.m., Theatre 2); and the winner of the Vimeo On Demand Audience Award at Hot Docs, Iqaluit-based filmmaker Alethea Arnaquq-Baril’s Angry Inuk (NFB/Unikkaat Studios/EyeSteelFilm), which challenges well-established perceptions of the anti-sealing movement (Sept. 22, 2 p.m., Theatre 5).

Five NFB shorts will also be featured on Sept. 19 at 2 p.m. at Park Lane Theatre 2, as part of the festival’s NFB Showcase: Theodore Ushev’s new multi-award-winning animated short Blind Vaysha; The Head Vanishes (Papy 3D/NFB/ARTE France), the latest international co-pro with acclaimed French animator Franck Dion; Oscar (MJSTP Films/NFB), Marie-Josée Saint-Pierre’s animated documentary portrait of pianist Oscar Peterson at the twilight of his exceptional career; and two very short works from the NFB’s Hothouse program for emerging animators, Fyoog, by Victoria’s Curtis Horsburgh, and Mindfork, by Montrealer Catherine Dubeau.

–30–

Associated Links

Atlantic Film Festival
Hothouse program
Phi Films
ID Productions
Unikkaat Studios
EyeSteelFilm
Papy 3D
ARTE France
MJSTP Films

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  • About the NFB

    Founded in 1939, the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) is a one-of-a-kind producer, co-producer and distributor of distinctive, engaging, relevant and innovative documentary and animated films. As a talent incubator, it is one of the world’s leading creative centres. The NFB has enabled Canadians to tell and hear each other’s stories for over eight decades, and its films are a reliable and accessible educational resource. The NFB is also recognized around the world for its expertise in preservation and conservation, and for its rich and vibrant collection of works, which form a pillar of Canada’s cultural heritage. To date, the NFB has produced more than 14,000 works, 6,500 of which can be streamed free of charge at nfb.ca. The NFB and its productions and co-productions have earned over 7,000 awards, including 11 Oscars and an Honorary Academy Award for overall excellence in cinema.