November 7, 2014 – Montreal, Quebec – National Film Board of Canada
The National Film Board of Canada (NFB) unveils exciting developments in interactive documentaries at IDFA DocLab, a program showcasing new media at the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA), with three projects in competition: In Limbo, Primal and Seven Digital Deadly Sins, taking place November 20 to 30 at de Brakke Grond.
The NFB’s executive producers and creative technologists responsible for digital media production are taking part in live presentations of In Limbo and Seven Digital Deadly Sins, along with another new work, Do Not Track, as part of DocLab Immersive Reality.
The NFB and ARTE will also announce the 12 winners of the international call for submissions for short online interactive experiences, called Interactive Haiku, on November 23 at the DocLab Interactive Conference.
Quick Facts
- In Limbo (NFB/ARTE/Providences)
o Hugues Sweeney, head of the NFB’s French-language Digital Studio in Montreal, will take part in two live cinema productions featured at a DocLab event entitled “Random Access Memory” on Friday, November 21, at 8 p.m.
o Launching online in January 2015, In Limbo immerses us in a world without forgetting, fed by all the machines, data centres and connected individuals that gather all our memories. The user is invited to connect all the accounts linked to his or her digital identity, integrating their own data (texts, pictures, sounds, locations) into the global data stream in the film.
o Directed by Antoine Viviani and produced by Marianne Levy-Leblond and Alexander Knetig (ARTE); Antoine Viviani and Emilie Arlet (Providences); and Hugues Sweeney and Louis-Richard Tremblay (NFB).
- Seven Digital Deadly Sins (NFB/The Guardian)
o Loc Dao, who heads the NFB’s English-language Digital Studio in Vancouver, presents Seven Digital Deadly Sins with project participant Ophira Eisenberg, comedian and host of NPR’s Ask Me Another, at the DocLab Live event “Love and Other Digital Deadly Sins” on November 24 at 8 p.m.
o This project explores the shifting grey area of morality in the digital age through a series of seven candid short films featuring well-known artists and media figures, as well as 21 first-person stories from a wide range of contributors, including a secret Twitter star, a hacker and a couple whose wedding invite went viral. Users also have the chance to absolve and condemn the behaviour of others.
o Produced by Alicia Smith (NFB). Executive producers are Loc Dao (NFB), Francesca Panetta and Lindsay Poulton (The Guardian). Co-created by Jeremy Mendes (NFB), with Pablo Vio (Jam3) as creative director.
- Primal (NFB/Encuentro)
o A collaborative web experience that looks at how we express our strongest feelings. It challenges participants to let go by screaming, channelling their most intense emotions to create a participatory work of art: a collective online scream. The project also allows users to explore the realities of young Argentinean and Canadian participants in depth, through video portraits.
o Primal launched on the web on October 29 and is the first collaboration between the NFB’s Digital Studio and Encuentro, the Ministry of Education of Argentina’s television channel.
o Created by Montreal-based digital studio Folklore, Caroline Hayeur, Manuel Archain and Bruno Stagnaro.
- Do Not Track (NFB/Upian)
o Presented by Hugues Sweeney at DocLab Immersive Reality as part of “Who Is Your Data?” on Saturday, November 22, at 8 p.m.
o An interactive, ever-changing and participatory documentary devoted to online tracking and privacy on the Internet.
o Director Brett Gaylor previously directed the EyeSteelFilm/NFB co-produced open-source documentary RiP: A Remix Manifesto (2008), and is head of the Mozilla Webmaker program. Louis-Richard Tremblay is producer.
o Founded in 1998, Upian is an interactive production company based in France whose credits include Gaza Sderot and Prison Valley.
- Interactive Haiku
o The call for submissions ran from June 4 to August 19, 2014.
o Interactive Haiku aims to bring the brevity and richness of the haiku to the online realm, through projects that explore the possibilities of the short interactive format.
o Proposals were selected by an international jury consisting of Caspar Sonnen, founder and curator, IDFA DocLab; Héctor Ayuso, founder and programmer, OFFF Festival; David Carzon, bi-media editor-in-chief, Telerama; Ciel Hunter, creative director, the Creators Project; Jonathan Harris, artist and computer scientist; Marie-Pier Gauthier, head of production at the NFB’s Digital Studio; and Alexander Knetig, web commissioning editor at ARTE. William Uricchio, professor of Comparative Media Studies and Principal Investigator of the MIT Open Documentary Lab and the MIT Game Lab, will serve as jury president.
The NFB will also be participating in IDFA’s DocLab Academy and DocLab Summit. These NFB events complement its strong presence in the IDFA’s official selection, which was announced previously and includes the international premiere of Patricio Henríquez’s Macumba Media/NFB feature documentary Uyghurs: Prisoners of the Absurd.
Associated Links
ARTE: arte.tv/
Providences : providences.fr/
The Guardian: theguardian.com/
Encuentro: encuentro.gov.ar/
Upian: upian.com/
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Media Relations
Melissa Than
NFB Publicist
Tel.: 416-952-8960
Cell: 647-248-9854
E-mail: m.than@nfb.ca
Twitter: @NFB_Melissa
Lily Robert
Director, Corporate Communications and Corporate Affairs
Tel.: 514-283-3838
Cell: 514-296-8261
E-mail: l.robert@nfb.ca
About the NFB
Beginning May 2, 2014, the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) marks 75 years of innovation and leadership in film and interactive media. The NFB is one of the world’s leading digital content hubs, creating groundbreaking interactive documentaries and animation, mobile content, installations and participatory experiences. NFB interactive productions and digital platforms have won 100 awards, including 10 Webbys. To access acclaimed NFB content, visit NFB.ca or download its apps for smartphones, tablets and connected TV.
