In any given year, approximately 79 percent of Canadians participate in some form of gambling, and more than 35 percent of casino profits come from players who have a gambling problem. The hidden side of gambling is the focus of the NFB’s new 20-minute interactive documentary, Thank You for Playing, which explores compulsive gambling using a playful format that recreates the very same psychological mechanisms underlying the addiction, introducing viewers to a range of perspectives on the subject in the process. Created by Andréa Cohen-Boulakia (director), Priam Givord (design and interactivity) and Dominic Desjardins (producer), this interactive doc from the NFB’s Canadian Francophonie Studio in Toronto will be available online at nfb.ca/thankyouforplaying as of Tuesday, December 12.
The National Film Board of Canada is back at the Sundance Film Festival—the premier showcase for U.S. and international independent films, taking place January 18–28, 2018—with three films chosen for the festival’s shorts program: Diane Obomsawin’s I Like Girls, Chintis Lundgren’s Manivald (Chintis Lundgreni Animatsioonistuudio/Adriatic Animation/NFB) and Eva Cvijanović’s Hedgehog’s Home (NFB/Bonobostudio).
The National Film Board of Canada is back at the Sundance Film Festival—the premier showcase for U.S. and international independent films, taking place January 18–28, 2018—with three films chosen for the festival’s shorts program: Diane Obomsawin’s I Like Girls, Chintis Lundgren’s Manivald (Chintis Lundgreni Animatsioonistuudio/Adriatic Animation/NFB) and Eva Cvijanović’s Hedgehog’s Home (NFB/Bonobostudio).
Luc Bourdon’s La part du diable (The Devil’s Share), produced at the National Film Board of Canada by Colette Loumède, won in the Best Feature- or Medium-Length Documentary category at the Festival international du cinéma francophone en Acadie (FICFA) in Moncton on November 24. Composed of excerpts from NFB films that offer a new and distinctive perspective on Quebec’s Quiet Revolution of the 1970s, the film had its world premiere screening at Montreal’s Festival du nouveau cinema, where it got a standing ovation in a packed theatre. In other good news, the feature doc will be released in several Quebec cities starting February 16, 2018, and audiences can view the trailer online as of today.
On Tuesday, November 28, at onf.ca/tremplin, the National Film Board of Canada,
in collaboration with Radio-Canada, is launching the 10th edition of Tremplin, a national competition aimed at filmmakers from Canadian francophone-minority communities outside of Quebec. Winners get a chance to make their first or second professional short documentary and, by the same token, they get to create a French-language work in their home region. Those selected to participate will benefit from professional guidance and have access to the NFB’s expertise at each stage of the process, from writing to directing and post-production. The winning works will be broadcast on ICI RADIO-CANADA TÉLÉ. Since Tremplin was first created in 2006, 323 projects have been submitted, 85 finalists have undergone training and 27 films have been made. Radio-Canada has partnered with the NFB for the Tremplin contest since 2007.
On November 21 at 7 p.m., the Vancouver Aquarium is offering an evening of National Film Board of Canada films, with two new NFB documentaries that explore Canada’s struggling Atlantic cod and bluefin tuna fisheries.
News out of the NFB’s Canadian Francophonie Studio – Acadie in Moncton: producer Jac Gautreau has been named executive producer of Ocean School for a period of nine months, starting December 1. The studio’s executive producer, Dominic Desjardins, will soon be announcing the appointment of a studio interim producer for this period. Jac Gautreau will return to his usual position in September 2018.
A rich selection of 11 National Film Board of Canada
films will be screening at the 16th Sommets du cinéma d’animation (November 22–26), giving Montreal audiences a chance to see these acclaimed and innovative animated works, all of which have been shown at major festivals around the world. Keyu Chen’s short film Un printemps (Winds of Spring) (NFB) will be screening on opening night, along with the feature film Le Grand Méchant Renard et autres contes by Benjamin Renner and Patrick Imbert. The closing night film will be the live-action/animated feature documentary WALL (Le Mur) (NFB), written by Oscar-nominated British screenwriter and playwright David Hare (The Hours, The Reader) and directed by Cam Christiansen.
The National Film Board of Canada is saddened to learn of the passing of William Weintraub, O.C., who died in Montreal on November 6, 2017, at the age of 91. Born on February 19, 1926, in Montreal, William Weintraub made enormous contributions to Canadian cinema and literature, as an accomplished journalist, author, screenwriter, director, producer and more.
The National Film Board of Canada and the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal (MAC) present their first-ever co-production, I Heard There Was a Secret Chord. An ambitious installation created by Daily tous les jours, the work is part of Leonard Cohen: A Crack in Everything – Une brèche en toute chose, a major multidisciplinary show at the MAC featuring 20 works by 40 artists from 10 countries, inspired by the life, work and themes of the eponymous Montreal literary icon. I Heard There Was a Secret Chord, whose title is the first line of Cohen’s anthemic song “Hallelujah,” is both an installation and an online experience (asecretchord.com, publicly accessible as of November 9, the exhibition’s opening date). This unique participatory experience seeks to reveal the invisible vibration uniting people around the world listening to “Hallelujah” at the same time, as real-time user data representing these listeners is transformed into a virtual choir of humming voices that participants can hum along with.
Starting November 5, Eoin Duffy’s award-winning National Film Board of Canada (NFB) animated short I Am Here will be streamed free-of-charge across a range of online portals, as this flash-animated 2D short premieres simultaneously at Cartoon Brew, NFB.ca, Vimeo, YouTube and Facebook.
To commemorate the Centennial of the Battle of Vimy Ridge, the Vimy Foundation and the National Film Board of Canada have partnered to launch a new original short film entitled Return to Vimy, written, directed and produced by Denis McCready.
The National Film Board of Canada congratulates animator and frequent NFB creative collaborator Michèle Cournoyer on winning the 2017 Prix Albert-Tessier—making her the first female animation filmmaker to receive this honour. The award is being presented to Cournoyer today, during a formal ceremony at the Parliament Building in Quebec City. Quebec’s highest honour in cinema, the award recognizes her body of work and her significant contribution to filmmaking in the province. The Prix Albert-Tessier is one of 14 Prix du Québec awarded every year.
The National Film Board of Canada returns to the Festival international du cinéma francophone en Acadie (FICFA) this year with five films, including a preview screening of the director’s cut of 1999 (Parabola Films, in co-production with Beauvoir Films and the NFB), a feature documentary by Acadian director Samara Grace Chadwick. A collective essay on how grief is internalized, the film focuses on an inspiring group of people who break their long silence 16 years after a wave of teenage suicides at a Moncton-area high school. This screening will take place at 7 p.m. on Monday, November 20, at the Capitol Theatre, with the director in attendance. Also screening at this year’s festival, in competition, is Luc Bourdon’s feature documentary La part du diable (The Devil’s Share). This will be the film’s premiere screening in Acadie, following its world premiere in a packed theatre at Montreal’s Festival du nouveau cinéma, where it received a standing ovation. The film offers a new and distinctive perspective on Quebec’s Quiet Revolution of the 1970s, using clips from NFB films. Three NFB shorts will also be screened at the festival, as part of its special animation program: Éléonore Goldberg’s Mon yiddish papi (My Yiddish Papi) (Picbois Productions/NFB); Patrick Péris’ Nadine; and Matthew Rankin’s TESLA: LUMIÈRE MONDIALE (THE TESLA WORLD LIGHT).
Financial crises happen regularly—and repeat themselves. The effects of the 2008 crisis are still with us today, yet the average person still has a limited understanding of economic phenomena. Many think these concepts are too complicated and aren’t relevant to them. This is exactly the sort of thinking that prompted the National Film Board of Canada to produce How to Create a Financial Crisis, an interactive documentary in the form of a text-message conversation with Léon Courville—a professor of economics, former President and Chief Operating Officer of National Bank of Canada, and renowned popularizer of economic science. As a former key player at one of the country’s major financial institutions, Courville offers exclusive insights into the mechanisms of financial crises and the human behaviour behind them. Gaining a better understanding of the complex world of finance and having tools to better access it are important as we approach November, Financial Literacy Month in Canada. This free interactive experience is optimized for mobile phones and accessible on tablets and desktop computers, presenting its complex subject in a dynamic, colourful and entertaining format. How to Create a Financial Crisis was created by a high-profile multidisciplinary team that brought together Courville, writer-creator Charles Trahan, illustrator Katy Lemay, and digital design studio Folklore. The experience was produced at the NFB by Louis-Richard Tremblay.