Three awards for Edmonton-produced NFB short doc We Regret to Inform You… Heidi Janz and Eva Colmers’ short film honoured by DOXA and AMPIA
PRESS RELEASE
15/05/2016
May 15, 2016 – Edmonton – National Film Board of Canada (NFB)
Co-written and co-directed by Edmontonians Heidi Janz and Eva Colmers, the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) short documentary We Regret to Inform You… has added to its list of awards, winning the EDA Award for Best Female-Directed Documentary Short at the DOXA Documentary Film Festival on May 14―an award presented by the Alliance of Women Film Journalists at DOXA for the first time.
Produced by Bonnie Thompson and executive produced by David Christensen for the NFB’s North West Studio in Edmonton, this 11-minute film was a double Rosie Award winner last week at the Alberta Film & Television Awards, winning Best Direction for a Documentary Short and Best Editing for a Documentary. Presented by the Alberta Media Production Industries Association to honour the best of Alberta’s production in the screen industry, the Rosies were announced in Calgary on May 8.
We Regret to Inform You… offers an unsentimental and unapologetic look at what it means to be both “disabled” and “productive” as it follows Dr. Janz―award-winning playwright, accomplished academic and self-described “crip”―through her everyday life. It will be featured next in Saskatchewan, at the Yorkton Film Festival, taking place May 26–29.
Quick Facts
Eva Colmers
Eva Colmers is an independent filmmaker who has written, directed and produced a dozen award-winning short films in the dramatic, documentary and experimental genres. Her credits include 2.57k, Granny Baby, The Weightless Traveller and End of the Rope. For the NFB, she has written and directed two long-format documentaries, The Elder Project (2010) and The Enemy Within (2003).
Heidi Janz
Dr. Heidi Janz is a writer/playwright whose most-recently produced plays include: Voices at Dying, Dying to be Heard, produced in 2006 for the 16th International Congress on the Care of the Terminally Ill; and The Book of Jobes, first produced by Kompany Family Theatre and Lone Sparrow Productions for the 2011 Edmonton Fringe Theatre Festival. Janz is an adjunct professor with the John Dossetor Health Ethics Centre and the Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine at the University of Alberta, specializing in the field of Disability Ethics. She was named Global TV’s Woman of Vision in May 2013.
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Associated Links
DOXA Documentary Film Festival
Alliance of Women Film Journalists
Alberta Media Production Industries Association
Yorkton Film Festival
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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.