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Five Feminist Minutes 2019 premieres May 1 at NFB.ca. New and classic short works streaming free of charge as the NFB marks its 80th year.

PRESS RELEASE
01/05/2019

May 1, 2019 – Toronto – National Film Board of Canada

In 1990, the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) made waves with Five Feminist Minutes, a series of short films produced by the trailblazing Studio D, the world’s first all-woman production unit. Now, as the NFB marks its 80th anniversary, four directors have picked up the thread with Five Feminist Minutes 2019.

Premiering online May 1 at NFB.ca, Five Feminist Minutes 2019 features new works by Ann Marie Fleming, Alexandra Lazarowich and Joyce Wong, as well as director Deanne Foley and screenwriter Mary Walsh—alongside the classic shorts that inspired them.

All eight short works are also being featured at the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival, as part of a special Redux program tribute to pioneering women’s filmmaking at the NFB.

Camera Test

Joyce Wong’s Camera Test looks at what gets lost when female voices are stymied during the creative process. Pairing intimate interviews with absurdist re-enactments, Wong crafts a tartly subversive look at patriarchy and racism in the film industry. Produced by Justine Pimlott for the NFB’s Ontario Studio in Toronto, Camera Test was inspired by Cathy Quinn and Frances Leeming’s The Untilled Story, a mischievous feminist riff on vintage NFB instructional films in which the filmmakers enlist a kaleidoscope of petals in their resistance against the patriarchy.

Lake

In Lake, Cree director Alexandra Lazarowich riffs off classic verité cinema to craft a contemporary portrait of Métis women net-fishing in Northern Alberta. Executive produced by David Christensen for the NFB’s North West Studio in Edmonton, this short film is inspired by Minqon Minqon: Wosqotomn Elsonwagon (Shirley Bear: Reclaiming the Balance of Power), Catherine Martin’s profile of Wolastoqiyik/Malecite artist Shirley Bear, known as Minqon Minqon (Rainbow Rainbow), who defies repressive colonial narratives with inspiring imagery of Indigenous womanhood.

Question Period

One of the original Five Feminist Minutes filmmakers, Vancouver’s Ann Marie Fleming, is back with Question Period, in which a group of recently settled Syrian refugee women have questions about life in their new home. Executive produced by Shirley Vercruysse for the BC and Yukon Studio in Vancouver, the film is inspired by Fleming’s own New Shoes: An Interview in Exactly Five Minutes, which combines astonishing narrative shorthand with heightened visual poetics to trace the trajectory of a love affair gone bad.

Radical

In Radical, Deanne Foley profiles fellow Newfoundlander Mary Walsh, the Great Warrior Queen of Canadian comedy, musing on time wasted as an object of desire and time well spent as the fearless agent of her own destiny. Written by Walsh and produced by Annette Clarke for the Quebec and Atlantic Studio in St. John’s, the film is inspired by Come into My Parlour by fellow Newfoundland filmmaker Mary Lewis, who joyously reclaims “spinsterhood” from its sexist implications in this animated homage to the undauntable great aunt who provided her first driving lesson.

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Related Products

Electronic Press Kit | Images, trailer, synopses: Five Feminist Minutes

Associated Links

Studio D
Five Feminist Minutes – 1990 short-film series
Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival

Media Relations

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    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, 7,000 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.