October 28, 2022 – Montreal – National Film Board of Canada (NFB)
More films than ever will be available for free streaming on nfb.ca in November, with a rich selection from various NFB studios around the country. On the program: three animated shorts that have won numerous awards and enjoyed successful festival tours; two striking documentaries, one short and one feature-length, that take us from Nunatsiavut to Somalia; and a thematic channel to highlight Remembrance Day on November 11. These latest additions join the more than 5,500 titles already available on nfb.ca, along with our collection of some one hundred interactive works, almost all of which are available for free online viewing.
Starting October 28, to celebrate International Animation Day
Bad Seeds by Claude Cloutier (2020, Unité centrale / NFB French Program Animation Studio)
Animated short (6 min 22 s)
Press kit: mediaspace.nfb.ca/epk/bad-seeds
- Growth goes hand-in-hand with rivalry, and evolution with competition, in this shocking animated duel that’s peppered with allusions to the western film, the Cold War, board games, and much more. An official selection at over 25 festivals around the world, this film has already won six awards, including Best Animation Short at the 2021 New York City Short Film Festival.
- A Claude Cloutier retrospective will also be available on nfb.ca. Collection curator Marc St-Pierre has written a blog post about the filmmaker’s body of work. Since the 1980s, this seasoned animation filmmaker has made 13 films produced or co-produced by the NFB, including the award-winning shorts The Persistent Peddler (1988), Sleeping Betty (2007), The Trenches (2010) and Carface (2015).
Starting November 1
The Perfect Story by Michelle Shephard (2022, Frequent Flyer Films / NFB Ontario Studio)
Feature-length documentary (73 min 40 s)
Press kit: mediaspace.nfb.ca/epk/the-perfect-story
The Perfect Story offers a riveting, intimate look at the ethical and moral challenges sparked by the relationship between a foreign correspondent and a young Somali refugee. By revealing the boundaries of journalism and filmmaking, the film questions what stories are told, why, and who gets to tell them. The Perfect Story had its world premiere at the Calgary International Film Festival, where it won the DGC Canadian Documentary Award for the best Canadian documentary feature.
Starting November 8
Impossible Figures and other stories I by Marta Pajek (2021, Animoon / NFB English Program Animation and Interactive Studio)
Animated short (16 min)
Press kit: mediaspace.nfb.ca/epk/impossible-figures-and-other-stories-i
Following an explosion, a mysterious and elegant elderly woman wanders deserted city streets, recalling what was and what could have been. The final film (and first part) of Marta Pajek’s acclaimed trilogy, Impossible Figures and other stories I is a mysterious and haunting portrait of personal and societal self-destruction. Selected by more than 50 festivals around the world, this short has won seven awards to date, including the Golden Dove for Best Animated Short Film at the DOK Leipzig Festival.
To mark Remembrance Day, November 11
Channel: www.nfb.ca/channels/remembrance-day
This channel features 18 documentary films honouring the men and women who’ve served our country in various conflicts, including Jean-François Caissy’s First Stripes and Claude Guilmain’s The Van Doos: 100 Years with the Royal 22e Régiment.
Starting November 15 in North America
Nalujuk Night by Jennie Williams (2021, NFB Quebec and Atlantic Studio)
Short documentary (13 min 7 s)
Press kit: mediaspace.nfb.ca/epk/nalujuk-night
Run as fast as you can, the Nalujuit are here! Inuk filmmaker Jennie Williams brings us the story of an exhilarating and sometimes terrifying Nunatsiavut tradition, plunging audiences directly into the action of a winter night like no other. Nalujuk Night was selected to screen at numerous festivals in Canada and the US and earned many awards, notably at the 2021 FIN Atlantic International Film Festival and the 2022 Yorkton Film Festival, in addition to winning Best Short Documentary at the 2022 Canadian Screen Awards. The film is also available with French and Inuktitut subtitles.
Starting November 21
Meneath: The Hidden Island of Ethics by Terril Calder (2021, NFB English Program Animation and Interactive Studio)
Animated short (19 min 22 s)
Press kit: mediaspace.nfb.ca/epk/meneath
In this stop-motion film, Orkney Cree Métis creator Terril Calder charts a challenging journey for a precocious Métis baby girl as she contemplates her path to Hell. The short film was selected to screen at the 2022 Annecy and Berlin festivals after its world premiere at the 2021 Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), and has garnered many awards, including a Special Mention – Canadian Film Institute Award for Best Canadian Animation at the 2021 Ottawa International Animation Festival.
Learn more about the NFB’s filmmakers and its collection:
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French version here | Version française ici.