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Five National Film Board of Canada titles to premiere at FIN Atlantic International Film Festival. Three of the films and directors have ties to Halifax (The Flying Sailor and Dear Audrey) and St. John’s (love, amma).

PRESS RELEASE
24/08/2022

August 24, 2022 – Montreal – National Film Board of Canada (NFB)

The 2022 FIN Atlantic International Film Festival will showcase a stellar selection of five National Film Board of Canada (NFB) films, packed with emotion, courage and wonder.

The festival runs from September 15 to 22, with an NFB lineup that includes three feature-length documentaries, one short doc and an inventive animated short inspired by the Halifax Explosion.

All screenings will take place in-person at Cineplex Cinemas at the Park Lane Mall, 5657 Spring Garden Road, Halifax.

World premieres

love, amma by Prajwala Dixit (15 min)
Reel East Coast Shorts Gala
Sunday, September 18, 7 p.m.

Produced by Annette Clarke for the Quebec and Atlantic Studio in Halifax
Press kit: mediaspace.nfb.ca/epk/love-amma

  • Wanting to demonstrate the courage in vulnerability and the strength in speaking one’s truth, a young mother, newly diagnosed with borderline personality disorder, writes her daughter a letter to help her navigate an uncertain future.
  • Mixing observational documentary with personal essay, love, amma is, on the surface, an intimate story of one family’s journey to healing. But on a deeper level, it is a courageous and candid attempt to depict mental illness from a new angle—through rarely seen moments along the path to acceptance.
  • Prajwala Dixit is an author, journalist, documentary filmmaker and theatre practitioner who calls both Bengaluru, India, and St. John’s home. Winner of the Arts and Letters Award, Prajwala spearheads an annual fundraiser called Diyas for Diversity that has raised more than $9,000 to add 178 new titles to the public libraries of Newfoundland and Labrador.

Voices Across the Water by Fritz Mueller (84 min)
Documentaries Program
Tuesday, September 20, 1:30 p.m.

Produced by Fritz Mueller and Teresa Earle for Sagafish Media; Shirley Vercruysse for the NFB
Press kit: mediaspace.nfb.ca/epk/voices-across-the-water

  • This feature documentary follows two master boat builders as they practise their art and find a way back to balance and healing. For Alaskan Tlingit carver Wayne Price, fashioning a dugout canoe from a single massive red cedar tree is a way to reconnect to the Ancestral Knowledge of Indigenous craftspeople. Francophone artist Halin de Repentigny hand-makes birchbark canoes, harvesting raw materials from the Yukon forest.
  • Fritz Mueller is a Canadian biologist, documentary filmmaker, photographer, Fellow of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society and co-founder of Yukon-based Sagafish Media. Teresa Earle is a producer, writer and editor, and partner in Sagafish Media, whose credits include the award-winning productions Journeys to Adäka and Aurora Love.

Atlantic premieres

Dear Audrey by Jeremiah Hayes (90 min)
Documentary Program
Thursday, September 22, 4:00 p.m.
Followed by a 30-min. Q&A with Jeremiah Hayes and Martin Duckworth

Producers: Jeremiah Hayes and André Barro for Cineflix Media; Annette Clarke for the NFB
Press kit: mediaspace.nfb.ca/epk/dear-audrey

  • Acclaimed Canadian activist-filmmaker Martin Duckworth puts down his camera to care for his wife, Audrey Schirmer. While Audrey gradually fades away—and their autistic daughter, Jacqueline, struggles with her mother’s illness—Martin commits everything he’s got to making their lives creative and meaningful.
  • Jeremiah Hayes is a director, editor and writer in Montreal, best known as co-director, co-writer and editor of Reel Injun (Rezolution Pictures/NFB). His first job after film school was with Martin Duckworth as assistant editor on his 1991 NFB doc Peacekeeper at War. To create Dear Audrey, Jeremiah shot at least 90 hours of footage with the Duckworth family, over nearly 50 shooting days.
  • Martin has travelled the globe, directing 30 films and serving as cinematographer for 100. In 2015, he was awarded the Prix Albert-Tessier for outstanding contributions to Quebec cinema. He also grew up in Halifax, where he attended high school and his father was secretary-general of the YMCA.
  • Dear Audrey is a multi-award winner, including the People’s Choice Award at the 2021 Montreal International Documentary Festival (RIDM).

To Kill a Tiger by Nisha Pahuja (125 min)
Documentaries Program
Tuesday, September 20, 1:30 p.m.

Producers: Cornelia Principe and Nisha Pahuja for Notice Pictures; David Oppenheim for the NFB
Press kit: mediaspace.nfb.ca/epk/to-kill-a-tiger

  • On the night of a family wedding in a village in India, Ranjit’s 13-year-old daughter is dragged into the woods and raped by three men. Ranjit takes on the fight of his life when he demands the accused be brought to justice. With tremendous access to all facets of the story, To Kill a Tigercharts the emotional journey of an ordinary man thrown into extraordinary circumstances—a father whose love for his daughter forces a social reckoning that will reverberate for years to come.
  • Nisha Pahuja is an Emmy-nominated filmmaker based in Toronto and Bombay, whose credits include Diamond Road(2007 Gemini Award for Best Documentary Series) and The World Before Her (2012; Best Documentary, Tribeca; Best Canadian Documentary, Hot Docs; Canada’s Top Ten).

The Flying Sailor by Wendy Tilby and Amanda Forbis (7 min 45 s)
Canada and the World
Wednesday, September 21, 8:50 p.m.

Producer: David Christensen for the North West Studio in Edmonton
Press kit: mediaspace.nfb.ca/epk/the-flying-sailor

  • Inspired by an incredible true story of a man who was blown two kilometres through the air by the 1917 Halifax Explosion, the animated short The Flying Sailor is at once a bold blend of comedy, suspense and philosophy and an exhilarating contemplation of the wonder and fragility of existence.
  • Calgary-based animators Wendy Tilby and Amanda Forbis previously collaborated on When the Day Breaks (1999), which received an Oscar nomination and the Palme d’Or at Cannes, as well as Wild Life (2012), their second Academy Award-nominated short as a duo.

NFB industry events at FIN

The NFB will also present two activities for filmmakers and collaborators on Tuesday, September 20.

At 11 a.m., the NFB’s Distribution, Communications and Marketing team will host an Info Session at Cineplex Cinemas in Park Lane mall, to connect with people and break down how they work with independent creators and co-producers to bring NFB productions to Canadian and international audiences.

Then from 4 to 6 p.m., a drop-in Open House will take place in the NFB studio in downtown Halifax, at 5475 Spring Garden Road, suite 201. All are welcome, no RSVP required.

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Associated Links

FIN Atlantic International Film Festival
Cineplex Cinemas
Sagafish Media
Cineflix Media
Rezolution Pictures
Notice Pictures

French version here | Version française ici.

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, 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.