September 2, 2015 – Montreal – National Film Board of Canada (NFB)
The issues, stories and talents of British Columbia take centre stage from September 24 to October 9 as the Vancouver International Film Festival (VIFF) features nine films from the National Film Board of Canada (NFB), including the first film by Vancouver film writer Katherine Monk and the world premiere of an evocative look at Tofino artist Pete Clarkson’s unique tribute to victims of the 2011 Japanese tsunami.
BC stories and filmmakers
The BC Spotlight program hosts the eagerly awaited Vancouver premiere of Sasha Snow’s spellbinding feature Hadwin’s Judgement (True West Films/Passion Planet/NFB), based on Vancouver author John Vaillant’s award-winning book The Golden Spruce. A compelling hybrid of drama and documentary, Hadwin’s Judgement chronicles BC logging engineer and survivalist Grant Hadwin’s emotional crusade against clear-cutting in the world’s last great temperate rainforest―a crusade that ended in a shocking, illegal act.
Acclaimed Vancouver filmmaker Mina Shum makes her first feature-length foray into non-fiction in BC Spotlight with the BC premiere of Ninth Floor, revisiting the infamous 1969 Sir George Williams Riot at Montreal’s Concordia University, a watershed moment in Canadian race relations.
Making its world premiere in BC Spotlight, the short documentary Debris by Vancouver filmmaker John Bolton is a fascinating portrait of Tofino intertidal artist Pete Clarkson as he crafts—primarily out of timber washed ashore from the other side of the ocean—his most ambitious and personal project to date: a memorial to the 2011 Great East Japan earthquake and tsunami.
Headlining the NFB selection in Canadian Images Shorts is the BC premiere of Rock the Box, the directorial debut of Vancouver film critic and author Katherine Monk. In this short film, Monk focuses on Rhiannon Rozier, a 29-year-old Victoria native and UBC grad with a degree in political science and Latin American history who battles to break into the male-dominated world of DJing.
Great films from across Canada
Two-time Academy Award nominee Cordell Barker (The Cat Came Back, Strange Invaders) is at VIFF with If I Was God, a semi-autobiographical 3D animated short about a 12-year-old boy who speculates about what he would do if he were God—while dissecting a frog in Biology class.
Having its BC premiere in Arts and Letters, VIFF’s popular subsection of non-fiction features on the arts, Mark Lewis’s Invention (Mark Lewis Studio/NFB/Soda Film + Art) takes us on a dynamic tour of fluctuating cityscapes. The film was shot over a period of two years in Paris, Sao Paulo and Toronto, and is an homage to the “City Symphony” films of the 1920s.
Making its Canadian premiere, Blood Manifesto is a powerful statement from Genie Award winner Theodore Ushev (Lipsett Diaries), narrated by Ushev―and animated with the filmmaker’s own blood. The film asks whether one should fight for ideals, noble though they may be, if one must die for them in the end―and whether rebellion and insurrection are egotistical deeds or acts of altruism.
Canadian Images Shorts also features the English-language premieres of two films from the 5 Shorts Project, an NFB initiative to revisit the short non-fiction genre in partnership with regional Quebec producers. Shot entirely in 4K, At the Beach is a documentary by Jeremy Peter Allen (Manners of Dying) about a family day at the beach for burn victims, while Interview with a Free Man is a revealing look at a job interview, directed by Nicolas Lévesque (In Guns We Trust). These films were produced for the inaugural edition of the 5 Shorts Project with Spirafilm, a Quebec City-based film co-op.
Hadwin’s Judgement (86 min), BC Spotlight
• Hadwin’s Judgement is written and directed by Sasha Snow, and produced by Elizabeth Yake (True West Films), David Allen (Passion Planet), and David Christensen and Yves J. Ma (NFB).
• It is Snow’s second collaboration with John Vaillant, who had previously adapted Snow’s 2006 documentary Conflict Tiger into a non-fiction book. Honours for Vaillant’s The Golden Spruce include the 2005 Governor General’s Award and the Writers’ Trust Non-Fiction Prize.
• Sasha Snow is an award-winning filmmaker whose work interweaves documentary elements and dramatic reconstruction. Conflict Tiger, an environmental thriller that examines poaching and the hunt for a “man-eating” tiger in the forests of Siberia, won eight grand prizes and was nominated for the Wildscreen One Planet Award. In 2010, he received the Environmental Filmmaker of the Decade Award at the Green Planet Movie Awards.
Ninth Floor (81 min), BC Spotlight
• Ninth Floor is written and directed by Mina Shum, produced by Selwyn Jacob and executive produced by Shirley Vercruysse for the NFB’s Pacific and Yukon Centre in Vancouver.
• Mina Shum’s first feature, the NFB-co-produced Double Happiness (1994), received a Special Jury Citation for Best Canadian Feature Film and the Toronto Metro Media Prize at TIFF, as well as the Best First Feature Award at the Berlin Film Festival. Her 2002 feature Long Life, Happiness and Prosperity shared a Special Citation for Best Screenplay at the Vancouver International Film Festival. Her short films include Me, Mom and Mona, which won a Special Jury Citation at TIFF.
Debris (15 min), BC Spotlight
• Debris is written and directed by John Bolton, with Shirley Vercruysse as producer and executive producer for the NFB’s Pacific and Yukon Centre in Vancouver. The associate producer is Teri Snelgrove.
• Bolton’s production company, Opus 59 Films, specializes in films about art and music, and his credits include the Gemini-nominated omnibus film 12 Takes. He’s currently developing his first feature E Day Is Coming, which he describes as a “seismic comedy about earthquake and real estate anxiety in Vancouver.”
Rock the Box (10 min), Canadian Images Shorts
• Rock the Box is written and directed by Katherine Monk, produced by Shirley Vercruysse and Selwyn Jacob, and executive produced by Shirley Vercruysse for the NFB’s Pacific and Yukon Centre in Vancouver.
• Formerly the national movie critic for Postmedia News, Katherine Monk is a regular contributor to CBC Radio, Global Television, and Corus Radio, and has lectured and taught film at various institutions, including McGill’s Centre for Canadian Studies, Simon Fraser University and Capilano University. She is the bestselling author of Weird Sex and Snowshoes and Other Canadian Film Phenomena—later produced into a documentary feature directed by Jill Sharpe—as well as Joni: The Creative Odyssey of Joni Mitchell.
If I Was God (8 min 30 s), Canadian Images Shorts
• Written and directed by Cordell Barker, If I Was God is produced for the NFB by Michael Fukushima (producer) and David Christensen (producer and executive producer, North West Centre).
• Acclaimed Winnipeg animator Cordell Barker previously created three animated short films with the NFB: The Cat Came Back (1988), Strange Invaders (2001) and Runaway (2009). The first two received Oscar nominations; the third won the Petit Rail d’Or at Cannes and was an official selection at the Sundance and Toronto international film festivals. Collectively, the three films have won some 45 international awards.
Invention (80 min), Arts and Letters
• Invention is a Mark Lewis Studio production in co-production with the NFB and in association with Soda Film + Art. The producers are Eve Gabereau (Soda Film + Art), Gerry Flahive and Anita Lee (NFB), with Emily Morgan as co-producer (Soda Film + Art). The executive producers are Anita Lee (NFB) and Mark Lewis.
• Mark Lewis is a leading contemporary visual artist. In 2009, he represented Canada at the Venice Biennale and his work was the subject of a retrospective at TIFF. Much of his work focuses on the technology of film and different genres that have developed over 100 years of cinema history. He has been part of museum shows at the National Gallery of Canada, MoMA (New York), BFI Southbank (London), and Centre Pompidou (Paris), among others. Invention is his second collaboration with the NFB, following Cold Morning: Trilogy (2009).
Blood Manifesto (3 min), Canadian Images Shorts
• Blood Manifesto is written, directed and performed by Theodore Ushev. The film is produced by Marcy Page and Jelena Popovic, and executive produced by Michael Fukushima for the NFB’s Animation Studio.
• Born in Bulgaria, Theodore Ushev immigrated to Montreal in 1999 and has to date directed 17 films with the NFB. A Genie Award winner for his 2010 animated documentary Lipsett Diaries, written by Chris Robinson, Ushev’s other NFB films include Tower Bawher (2005), winner of the Award for Best Abstract Film at the London International Animation Festival; The Man Who Waited (2006) and Drux Flux (2008), both recipients of the Canadian Film Institute Award for Best Canadian Animation at the Ottawa International Animation Film Festival; as well as Gloria Victoria (2012), whose awards include a FIPRESCI prize for best short film in competition at the Annecy International Animation Film Festival.
At the Beach (6 min) and Interview with a Free Man (6 min), Canadian Images Shorts
• The producers are Nathalie Cloutier and Colette Loumède for the NFB and Catherine Benoit for Spirafilm.
• Jeremy Peter Allen (At the Beach) directed the 2004 dramatic feature Manners of Dying, based on the Yann Martel short story. His short film credits include the 2006 NFB documentary Robert Lepage, a tribute to the Quebec director, playwright, actor and filmmaker on the occasion of his 2009 Governor General’s Performing Arts Award. In recent years, Allen has focused on theatre projects, directing the play Frozen by Bryony Lavery at Quebec City’s Théâtre de la Bordée in 2014.
• Nicolas Lévesque (Interview with a Free Man) is a photographer and filmmaker whose films include the acclaimed documentary shorts Lévesque et fils, maraîcher(s) (2008) and Le Projet Racine(s) (2010). His latest, In Guns We Trust (2013), was screened as part of the SODEC and Not Short on Talent programs at the Cannes Film Festival and was named to TIFF’s 2014 list of Top Ten Shorts.
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