National Film Board of Canada greenlights 12 projects for production.  New documentary and interactive works from across Canada.  

June 3, 2021 – Montreal – National Film Board of Canada (NFB)

The NFB, Canada’s public producer, has recently greenlit a dozen new productions and co-productions—documentary and interactive works that got underway between January and March 2021.

The NFB has been producing projects under its health guidelines and protocols for the COVID-19 pandemic, introduced last summer in collaboration with the Documentary Organization of Canada.

For more information on these and other projects currently underway across NFB studios, please visit our NFB Production web page.

DOCUMENTARY

Baby Boy Cousins – feature-length film
Director: Adrian Wills
Producer: Annette Clarke | Quebec & Atlantic Studio | 100% NFB
Beginning with one meagre clue, seasoned storyteller Adrian Wills turns the camera to his own story and emotional mystery behind his biological roots.

Dear Audrey – feature-length film
Director: Jeremiah Hayes
Co-producers: Cineflix Inc. (Glen Salzman & Andre Barro) & NFB (Annette Clarke) | Quebec & Atlantic Studio
Over four years, Jeremiah Hayes is a witness to the most important work of Martin Duckworth’s life—caring for his wife after a debilitating diagnosis, and helping his daughter, who has autism, maintain a relationship with her mom.

A Motorcycle Saved My Life – short film
Director: Lori Lozinski
Producer: Teri Snelgrove | BC & Yukon Studio | 100% NFB
Excavating her personal history, Lori Lozinski documents her past and her present as she traverses the open road in search of answers about what it means to be a woman on a bike.

Our Maternal Home – short film
Director: Janine Windolph
Producer: Jon Montes | North West Studio | 100% NFB
Introducing her teenaged sons to their maternal home of Waswanipi, QC, Janine Windolph continues the work of her previous films with the NFB in this nurturing exploration of matriarchal kinship, and powerful affirmation of family identity. 

Post humains – feature-length film
Directors: Jérémie Battaglia and Dominique Leclerc
Producer: Nathalie Cloutier | French Program Documentary Studio | 100% NFB
Post humains will immerse spectators in the cyborg and transhumanist world, painting a portrait of this movement that imagines an improved or even immortal human being—the result of human-machine hybridization.

Projet fantômes – feature-length film
Director: Sophie Bédard Marcotte
Producer: Pierre-Mathieu Fortin | French Program Documentary Studio | 100% NFB
In this poetic, witty documentary about the complexities of the creative process and the quest for meaning, the filmmaker shadows her neighbour, young playwright and director Gabriel Plante, as he works on a play based on the myth of Sisyphus.

Stolen Time – feature-length film
Director: Helene Klodawsky
Co-producers: Intuitive Pictures Inc. (Ina Fichman) & NFB (Ariel Nasr) | Quebec & Atlantic Studio
Outspoken and ardent, 36-year-old Melissa Miller, a personal injury lawyer representing some of Canada’s most vulnerable citizens, embarks on her most daring case to date.

Then Sings My Soul – short film
Director: Susan Rogers
Producer: Rohan Fernando | Quebec & Atlantic Studio | 100% NFB
Chad Matthews, who lives a simple life of local fame as a Stompin’ Tom tribute musician, is a man whose life hasn't taken him where he thought it would.

Le travail – medium-length film
Director: Julien Capraro
Producer: Denis McCready | Canadian Francophonie Studio | 100% NFB
Though studied for close to 50 years and presented as a potential driver of change in societies, as well as a way to curtail pollution in urban centres, the idea of remote work (or telecommuting) had mostly gathered dust on researchers’ shelves—until the COVID-19 crisis made it relevant for millions of businesses.

Unarchived – feature-length film
Directors: Hayley Gray and Elad Tzadok
Producer: Teri Snelgrove | BC & Yukon Studio | 100% NFB
Following Laura Cuthbert and her organization, Populous Map, Unarchived is an exploration of the diverse, underrepresented and unarchived histories in BC.

INTERACTIVE/IMMERSIVE

Chomsky vs. Chomsky – mixed-reality experience
Creators: Sandra Rodriguez, Cindy Bishop, Michael Burk and Johannes Lemke (schnellebuntebilder), Olivier Blais, Etienne Boisvenue and Simon Dagenais (Moov AI), Johannes Helberger (kling klang klong)
Co-produced by: schnellebuntebilder (Sebastian Huber, Robert Pohle and Johannes Timpernagel) and the NFB (Marie-Pier Gauthier and Laurence Dolbec) | Montreal Interactive Studio
Partners: Sundance Institute’s New Frontier Labs Program
Incubated at the MIT Open Documentary Lab
Funded by the Canada-Germany Digital Media Incentive and Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg

Chomsky vs. Chomsky is a multi-user, game-based and collaborative experience that aims to demystify the prospects, limitations and pitfalls of artificial intelligence through interaction with the ultimate guide: Chomsky AI, an entity constructed using digital traces of Noam Chomsky.

Sérotonine anonyme – web
Writer and Director: Caroline Robert. A creation of Studio AATOAA.
Producers: Marie-Pier Gauthier and Isabelle Repelin | Montreal Interactive Studio | 100% NFB
In this interactive animated short, a young woman broadcasts her cerebral activity during a virtual care session. A genuine, improvised guided tour of her brain, in which she provides humorous commentary on her thoughts as they take shape before our eyes in real time.

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