May 28, 2015 – Montreal – National Film Board of Canada
The National Film Board of Canada (NFB) is celebrating the 2015 Governor General’s Performing Arts Awards (GGPAA) laureates―singer/songwriter Sarah McLachlan, filmmakers Atom Egoyan and Jean-Marc Vallée, actor-directors Diana Leblanc and R.H. Thomson, composer Walter Boudreau and arts philanthropist Michael Koerner―with seven new short films, launching online Saturday, May 30, starting at 10:15 p.m. EDT.
Featured at the GGPAA Gala, these films are also available to all Canadians free of charge at the NFB’s Online Screening Room, through its apps for smartphones, tablets and connected TV, as well as in The Performing Arts in Canada: A Celebration, the GGPAA e-book.
A partner of the Governor General’s Performing Arts Awards since 2008, the NFB has produced 63 such films to date, in which NFB filmmakers draw inspiration from laureates to create one-of-a-kind audiovisual works honouring Canadian excellence in the performing arts.
This year’s crop of shorts is directed by Mary Lewis, Aisling Chin-Yee, Daniel Cockburn, Julia Kwan, Matthew Rankin and Annie St-Pierre, with production led by NFB Executive Producer for Special Projects René Chénier, a veteran producer of documentary, animation and arts-related films.
Tributes to the 2015 recipients of the Governor General’s Performing Arts Awards for Lifetime Artistic Achievement
Diana Leblanc follows this grand dame of the theatre as she prepares for a role in the Soulpepper Theatre production of The Dybbuk and gets ready to direct the opera Madame Butterfly. The film weaves together archival footage, photographs, and animation depicting Leblanc as a young ballerina, offering an intimate reflection on her life’s passions, challenges and lessons. Directed by Newfoundland and Labrador Arts Council Artist of the Year and Genie Award-winning filmmaker Mary Lewis, and produced by René Chénier.
Five Stories is an intimate documentary short paying tribute to Canadian actor, director, producer and arts advocate R.H. Thomson, directed by Montreal filmmaker Aisling Chin-Yee and produced by Michael Fukushima.
Sculpting Memory places Atom Egoyan in an audiovisual environment woven from the fabric of his own films―a conceptual move that references Egoyan’s adaptation of Beckett’s Krapp’s Last Tape while evoking Egoyan’s own work as a moving-image installation artist and his concern with the recording and displaying of images. Directed by Toronto-based writer/director Daniel Cockburn and produced by Justine Pimlott.
Surfacing explores the passions of Sarah McLachlan, using her words and drawings to guide us through her rich creative world, the founding of Lilith Fair, and her philanthropic work at the Sarah McLachlan School of Music. Directed by Julia Kwan, recently named Best New Talent from Quebec/Canada at the Rencontres internationales du documentaire de Montréal, and produced by Shirley Vercruysse.
The Radical Expeditions of Walter Boudreau is a tribute to this visionary composer’s life, work, mischief, and boundless artistic curiosity. Both a documentary biopic and a wildly abstract hallucination, the film conceives of Boudreau as a radical explorer, audaciously expanding the frontiers of our musical universe. Directed by Matthew Rankin, recipient of the inaugural National Media Arts Prize from the Independent Media Arts Alliance, and produced by René Chénier.
Tribute to the 2015 recipient of the Ramon John Hnatyshyn Award for Voluntarism in the Performing Arts
The second 2015 GGPAA film directed by Mary Lewis, Michael M. Koerner looks at an individual whose imposing career in the energy and financial sectors is matched by philanthropic work of similarly epic proportions. Driven by generosity and an unadulterated curiosity, he seems heroically intent on evading the limelight. Produced by René Chénier.
Tribute to the 2015 recipient of the National Arts Centre Award
In Jean-Marc Vallée (让-马克), a Chinese video club merchant is dedicated to a single filmmaker; for this connoisseur of cinema, Quebec’s Jean-Marc Vallée is the director the entire world needs to discover. A tender and humorous portrait directed by Annie St-Pierre, winner of the Pierre and Yolande Perrault Award for best emerging documentary filmmaker, and produced by René Chénier.
Governor General’s Performing Arts Awards: http://www.ggpaa.ca/home.aspx?lang=en-CA
Newfoundland and Labrador Arts Council: http://www.nlac.ca/index.htm
Canadian Screen Awards: http://www.academy.ca/Home
Rencontres internationales du documentaire: http://www.ridm.qc.ca/en
Independent Media Arts Alliance: http://www.imaa.ca/en/index.php/homepage
Online screening room: NFB.ca
Facebook: facebook.com/nfb.ca
Twitter: twitter.com/thenfb
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Pat Dillon
NFB Publicist
Cell: 514-206-1750
E-mail: p.a.dillon@nfb.ca
Twitter: @PatDoftheNFB
Lily Robert
Director, Communications, Marketing and Public Affairs
Tel.: 514-283-3838
Cell: 514-296-8261
E-mail: l.robert@nfb.ca
The National Film Board of Canada (NFB) creates groundbreaking interactive works, social-issue documentaries and auteur animation. The NFB has produced over 13,000 productions and won over 5,000 awards, including 14 Canadian Screen Awards, 11 Webbys, 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.
