September 3, 2014 - Toronto, Ontario - National Film Board of Canada
Julia Kwan's feature documentary Everything Will Be about Vancouver's Chinatown will have its British Columbia premiere at the Vancouver International Film Festival (VIFF), along with three NFB animated shorts. Everything Will Be is the first documentary film by Kwan, a Sundance award-winner for her 2005 debut feature Eve & the Fire Horse.
Also premiering at VIFF is Marie-Josée Saint-Pierre's Jutra, an ingenious portrait of legendary Quebec filmmaker Claude Jutra; The Weatherman and the Shadowboxer, Toronto artist Randall Okita's first foray into animation filmmaking; and Third Page from the Sun, the latest film by Theodore Ushev.
Everything Will Be
As dawn breaks, the long-time merchants of Vancouver's Chinatown are hard at work preparing for what they hope will be a busy day. But this once-thriving neighbourhood is in flux as new condo developments and non-Chinese businesses gradually move into the declining hub of the Chinese community. Everything Will Be captures this transformation through the intimate perspectives of the neighbourhood's residents, merchants and new entrepreneurs, who offer their poignant reflections on change, memory and legacy.
The film is written and directed by Julia Kwan, whose 2005 film Eve & the Fire Horse won the Special Jury Prize for World Cinema at the Sundance Film Festival as well as the Claude Jutra Award for best first feature film. Everything Will Be was produced and executive produced for the NFB by David Christensen. The film had its world premiere earlier this year at the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival.
Animated shorts at VIFF
Jutra – dir. Marie-Josée Saint-Pierre (14 min)
• Marie-Josée Saint-Pierre's Jutra is a portrait of the late Quebec filmmaker Claude Jutra, whose credits included the NFB classic Mon oncle Antoine. In Jutra, the filmmaker is seen in dialogue with himself at various stages of his life, becoming the narrator of his own biography.
• Animated sequences, excerpts from home movies, interviews and well-known works by the filmmaker blend and overlap to tell the story of a life devoted to creation. Jutra is at once a tribute, a love song to filmmaking, and the retelling of the tragedy of a brilliant artist who died much too young.
• Jutra continues an undertaking Saint-Pierre began in 2006 with the multi-award-winning McLaren's Negatives, devoted to Norman McLaren, encapsulating the life and career of another cinema giant.
• Jutra had its world premiere as part of the Directors' Fortnight at the Cannes Film Festival.
• Jutra was produced by Marie-Josée Saint-Pierre (MJSTP Films) in co-production with the NFB (Marc Bertrand). The executive producer for the NFB is René Chénier.
The Weatherman and the Shadowboxer – dir. Randall Okita (9 min)
• This visually haunting animated short follows two brothers who share the scars, though not the memories, of an untold history that has driven them to existential extremes.
• Combining high-speed camerawork, striking art direction and intricate animation sequences, acclaimed Toronto-based filmmaker and visual artist Randall Okita crafts a poetic elegy to connectedness and survival.
• The Weatherman and the Shadowboxer had its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival.
• The film was produced by Maral Mohammadian and Michael Fukushima for the NFB, with Fukushima also acting as executive producer.
Third Page from the Sun – dir. Theodore Ushev (5 min)
• Heralding the “end of paper,” Third Page from the Sun is an abstract exploration of a number of big issues, from the ephemerality of the digital age to the practice of recycling. To create this painting in motion, Theodore Ushev took an animation film festival catalogue and set its pages alight with the broad strokes of a paintbrush.
• A prolific and acclaimed filmmaker, Ushev has to date directed a dozen works for the NFB, including the 2010 animated documentary Lipsett Diaries, winner of the Genie Award for Best Animated Short.
• Third Page from the Sun had its world premiere at the prestigious Annecy International Animation Film Festival.
• The film was produced by Marc Bertrand and executive produced by René Chénier for the NFB.
Online screening room: NFB.ca
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Beginning May 2, 2014, the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) marks 75 years of innovation and leadership in social-issue documentaries, auteur animation, and most recently, groundbreaking interactive works. The NFB has produced over 13,000 productions and won over 5,000 awards, including 10 Webbys, 9 Canadian Screen Awards, 12 Oscars and more than 90 Genies. To access acclaimed NFB content, visit NFB.ca or download its apps for smartphones, tablets and connected TV.
