Posts from — February 2008

The 28th Annual Genie Awards took place on Monday March 3 and four NFB films are in the running in the following categories:

Best Documentary
Radiant City – Directors Gary Burns and Jim Brown give an interesting twist to the documentary genre while looking at suburban sprawl and the the effects on its inhabitants.

Best Animated Short

Madame Tutli-Putli – Directors Maciek Szczerbowski and Chris Lavis tell the dark tale of a train ride that leads Madame Tutli-Putli into some mysterious situations.

Here and There – Directors Diane Obomsawin and Marc Bertrand weave a whimsical world around childhood and identity.

Jeu – Georges Schwizgebel paints a landscape of modern life that constantly morphs and mutates.

Congratulations to to the makers of Radiant City and Madame Tutli-Putli for winning in their respective categories.

You can find all of these Genie nominees on DVD in the NFB online store.

Up the Yangtze and Family Motel were awarded prominent prizes at the 2008 Rendez-Vous du cinéma Québécois. The festival celebrates films made by Quebecers in both English and French on home grown and international issues and ideas.

Up the Yangtze won the Pierre and Yolande Perrault Award for Best Documentary Spirit. This is the top prize in the documentary category, and another prestigious win for this film. Up the Yangtze is currently playing in cinemas across the country.

Family Motel was also awarded the Alex and Ruth Dworkin Prize for the Promotion of Tolerance in Cinema, a great achievement for this alternative drama. The jury said, "the main character is constantly being confronted, yet sticks to what matters most to her which shows tremendous dignity and inspires respect from others." The jury also cites the film’s film’s fine cinematography, rich content and its moving and captivating story."
Check out article by Brendan Kelly in the Montreal Gazette on the successes of the Rendez-Vous du cinéma Québécois festival.
 

Fidel Castro’s leadership has sparked many an international debate and discussion. His announcement to resign has sparked us at the NFB to give you a taste of the Canadian and Cuban relationships in the 1970s with Canadian filmmaker Michael Rubbo’s film, Waiting for Fidel. Here is also a sneak peek into nfb.tv, our soon to be launched online streaming site, where you be able to browse and stream National Film Board content from throughout the ages. Watch Waiting for Fidel in its entirety here.

The NFB will take part in the 26th International Festival of Films on Art (FIFA), March 6-16, with two new documentaries – a world premiere for one – and a retrospective devoted to animation filmmaker Diane Obomsawin.

As part of the 400th anniversary of Quebec City, the NFB today unveiled its participation in the festivities with announcements of world premieres by renowned filmmakers.

Six NFB nominations

The 10th Jutra awards, marking the best of Quebec filmmaking, will take place on Sunday, March 9. The NFB dominates the Best Documentary and Best Animation categories with three nominations in each category.

For Best Documentary we have: Au pays des colons, The Invisible Nation (Le peuple invisible) and Up the Yangtze. For Best Animation we have three nominations out of four: Sleeping Betty (Isabelle au bois dormant), Madame Tutli-Putli and Subservience/Révérence.

Jean-Claude Labrecque will receive the prix Jutra-Hommage (Jutra tribute award) during this gala evening.

The NFB’s films and co-productions garnered four nods, dominating the Best Animated Short category (Madame Tutli-Putli, Jeu, Here and There) and receiving accolades for its co-production Radiant City, selected for the Best Documentary category.

Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media, Mark Achbar and Peter Wintonick’s highly successful film, is now available in a two-disc special edition.

The film follows the outspoken intellectual and activist, Noam Chomsky, as he examines the corporate and political influence of the mass media.

With four years of production that followed Chomsky across the globe, there was plenty of unseen footage collecting dust. Necessary Illusions (Achbar and Wintonick’s production company) and the NFB brushed off the archives and made the material available on this two-disc DVD, along with new interviews with the filmmakers and Chomsky. The film is available with French and Spanish subtitles.

Special Features:

• Interview with directors (2007)
• Interview with Chomsky (2007)
• Extendend Buckley vs. Chomsky debate on the Firing Line (1969)
• Chomsky vs. Foucault debate (1971)
• Chomsky vs. John Siber debate (1986)
• Chomsky & Alan Dershowitz debate (2005)
• Original Necessary Illusions demo tape (1989)
• Accompanying book by Mark Achbar in PDF

Though it proved to be a seminal film on mass media in the 1990s, Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media continues to prove its relevance in today’s political and corporate media climate.

Carts of Darkness is about a couple guys from Vancouver who turn bottle-picking, their primary source of income, into the extreme sport of shopping cart racing.

Enduring hardships from everyday life in the city, this sub-culture depicts street life as more than the stereotypes portrayed in mainstream media. The film takes a look into the lives of the men who race carts, the adversity they face, and the appeal of cart racing despite the risk.

In the film director Murray Siple also relates his own story. Siple specialized in snowboarding and skateboarding documentaries before a car accident put him in a wheelchair. In Carts of Darkness, Siple relives the rush of extreme sports filmmaking, and draws the line from his disability to the stereotypes these men face everyday.

Carts of Darkness premiere sold out Sunday February 3rd at the Victoria Film Festival

Next Screening

Friday February 22nd at the North Vancouver International Film Festival

Check out Murray Siple’s website and Citizenshift for clips and the trailer.