L’Office national du film du Canada (ONF) pleure la légende canadienne du cinéma et de l’animation Grant Munro, O.C., décédé à Montréal le 9 décembre à l’âge de 94 ans.
Grant Munro naît le 25 avril 1923. Il fait ses études à la Musgrove School of Art, à la Winnipeg School of Art, ainsi qu’à l’Ontario College of Art, où son professeur, le peintre Franklin Carmichael — membre du célèbre Groupe des sept — arrange des entrevues entre Norman McLaren, qui cherche à pourvoir un poste au Studio d’animation de l’Office national du film, et les étudiants de sa classe. Munro est embauché et se joint à un groupe dont font aussi partie ses condisciples pionniers de l’animation George Dunning et René Jodoin.
Dominic Desjardins, Executive Producer at the NFB’s Canadian Francophonie Studio – Acadie in Moncton, today announced the appointment of Christine Aubé as the studio’s Interim Producer. She replaces Jac Gautreau, who has been serving as Executive Producer of the Ocean School interactive project (NFB/Dalhousie University) since December 1. Gautreau will be reprising his role as Producer in October 2018. Ms. Aubé will start in her new position on January 4, 2018.
It’s a new playlist called The NFB Presents, featuring 20 acclaimed documentary and animated films—stories that will move, inspire, surprise and engage—now streaming free of charge at NFB.ca.
Among the titles being showcased are Sarah Polley’s hit feature Stories We Tell, Kathy Shultz’s acclaimed animated short A Sea Turtle Story, and Paul Cowan’s Paris 1919 (13 Production/NFB), inspired by Margaret MacMillan’s landmark book—all produced in Toronto by the NFB’s Ontario Studio. There’s also Jennifer Baichwal’s Payback, based on Margaret Atwood’s bestseller, and Mina Shum’s feature Ninth Floor as well as portraits of remarkable Canadians like Phil Comeau’s Secretariat’s Jockey, Ron Turcotte and Toronto director Lawrence Jackman’s short documentary How Does It Feel, about Kazumi, a performer with cerebral palsy.
On December 19 at 6:30 p.m., the Hot Docs Ted Rogers Cinema is hosting the Toronto premiere of writer/director and cinematographer John Hopkins’ National Film Board of Canada documentary Bluefin as part of Hot Docs’ Films Changing the World series, which brings together must-see docs, revealing staggering new perspectives and stories. Hopkins, who received the 2017 Wildlife Award at San Francisco’s International Ocean Film Festival and the Best Atlantic Filmmaker Award at the Lunenburg Doc Fest for Bluefin, will be in Toronto for a Q&A after the screening.
Four National Film Board of Canada films have been selected to the 17th annual Canada’s Top Ten Film Festival, a yearly compilation of the nation’s finest short and feature-length films, as announced by TIFF today.
After a well-received world premiere at the 36th Festival du cinéma international en Abitibi-Témiscamingue (FCIAT), the feature documentary Labrecque, une caméra pour la mémoire, directed by Michel La Veaux, opens in theatres in Montreal and Quebec City on Friday, January 12. The film will screen at the Cinémathèque québécoise in Montreal and the Cinéma Cartier in Quebec City. Labrecque, une caméra pour la mémoire offers a rare opportunity to witness a genuine encounter between renowned filmmaker and cinematographer Jean-Claude Labrecque (À hauteur d’homme), one of the pioneers of Quebec cinema, and the acclaimed Quebec cinematographer (Le démantèlement) and film director (Hôtel La Louisiane) Michel La Veaux. The film is produced by Nicole Hubert with executive producer Bernadette Payeur for the Association coopérative de productions audiovisuelles (ACPAV), and co-produced by the NFB, with Nathalie Cloutier as producer and Colette Loumède as executive producer. The documentary captures Labrecque’s passionate, humanistic perspective on the films, culture, and history of Quebec. Either Michel La Veaux or Jean-Claude Labrecque will be in attendance at some of the screenings.
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.