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Jari Osborne’s NFB short doc Picture This premieres at Toronto’s Inside Out fest. Festival also features Toronto debut of Diane Obomsawin’s award-winning I Like Girls.

PRESS RELEASE
19/05/2017

(Photo: Andrew Gurza / Image provided by the NFB)

May 19, 2017 – Toronto – National Film Board of Canada (NFB)

Jari Osborne’s 33-minute National Film Board of Canada of Canada documentary Picture This will have its world premiere at TIFF Bell Lightbox on Tuesday, May 30 at 5 p.m. at Toronto’s Inside Out Festival, which is also featuring the local debut of Diane Obomsawin’s acclaimed animated short I Like Girls.

One of four films screening in the festival program “Shorts: People of Interest,” Picture This introduces audiences to Andrew Gurza, a self-described “queer cripple” who has made it his mission to make sex and disability part of the public discourse. Funny, brash and determined in the face of attitudes he’s made it his life’s work to subvert, Andrew embraces his role as a poster boy for the cause—with an honesty that is, in itself, a kind of striptease. At the heart of the film is the uneasy dichotomy that disabled people face, of feeling either invisible or like a freak show, especially with regards to their sexuality. With its insistent and unflinching gaze, Picture This invites us to see them for who they are.

Picture This is produced by Lea Marin and executive produced by Anita Lee in Toronto. It’s the third NFB documentary by Osborne, an award-winning filmmaker and journalist who previously worked with the NFB on Unwanted Soldiers (Canada Award, Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television Awards; Best Biography/History Documentary, Hot Docs) as well as Sleeping Tigers: The Asahi Baseball Story (Best Feature Documentary, San Diego Asian Film Festival).

One of the six films screening in “Shorts: When You Know, You Know,” I Like Girls by Diane Obomsawin, a.k.a. Obom, is an animated adaptation of her graphic novel, exploring four women’s true stories of first love and same-sex desire in her trademark playful style.

Produced by Marc Bertrand and executive produced by Julie Roy, I Like Girls has received five awards to date, including the Guy-L. Coté Award for Best Canadian Animation at Montreal’s Sommets du cinéma d’animation and the Nelvana Grand Prize for Independent Short Animation at the Ottawa International Animation Festival. I Like Girls is Obom’s eighth film with the NFB.

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Related Products

Electronic Press Kit | Images, trailers, synopsis: I Like Girls | Picture This

Associated Links

Inside Out Festival
TIFF Bell Lightbox
Andrew Gurza

Media Relations

  • 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, 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.