Rent or own NFB’s acclaimed NFB feature doc Ninth Floor on NFB.ca and iTunes, starting May 17. Named to Canada’s Top Ten, film explores Montreal’s infamous “Sir George Williams Riot”
PRESS RELEASE
17/05/2016
May 17, 2016 – Montreal – National Film Board of Canada (NFB)
Exploring a watershed moment in Montreal race relations history, the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) acclaimed feature Ninth Floor debuts on NFB.ca and iTunes (Canada and the U.S.) on May 17, 2016, for download-to-own (DTO) and video-on-demand (VOD).
Premiering online after a critically acclaimed run at film festivals across Canada, Ninth Floor is written and directed by award-winning Vancouver Mina Shum. This 81-minute feature documentary revisits the infamous 1969 Sir George Williams Riot―an event that began quietly when a group of Caribbean students started to suspect their professor of racism, but ended in the most explosive student uprising Canada had ever known.
The May 17 launch of Ninth Floor on NFB.ca coincides with the announcement by Women In Film & Television Vancouver (WIFTV) that Shum has been named the winner of its 2016 Artistic Achievement Award, to be presented June 20 in Vancouver as part of WIFTV’s Spotlight Awards honouring people who’ve made a difference in B.C.’s film industry. It’s the latest accolade for Shum and Ninth Floor, which was named to Canada’s Top Ten by the Toronto International Film Festival.
Ninth Floor is produced by Selwyn Jacob and executive produced by Shirley Vercruysse for the NFB.
Quick Facts
Mina Shum’s first feature, the NFB-co-produced Double Happiness (1994), premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival, where it won a Special Jury Citation for Best Canadian Feature Film and the Toronto Metro Media Prize. Shum’s second and third features—Drive, She Said (1997) and Long Life, Happiness and Prosperity (2002)—also premiered at TIFF. Her short films include Me, Mom and Mona, which won a Special Jury Citation at the 1993 Toronto Film Festival, and, most recently, I Saw You (2013).
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Associated Links
NFB.ca – Download
iTunes – Download
Women In Film & Television Vancouver
Canada’s Top Ten
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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.