October 13, 2015 – Montreal – National Film Board of Canada (NFB)
I Love Potatoes, a game by NFB artist in residence Vali Fugulin, co-created with Minority, is available worldwide today on tablets (iOS and Android) and can be downloaded for free through the App Store, Google Play and Amazon. The game is available in seven languages (including English, French and Quebec French) and also has mobile devices and Web versions. The nfb.ca/ilovepotatoes site also includes a guide for social innovation and educational tools.
I Love Potatoes is a game that engages children ages 9–12—as well as their parents and grandparents—on issues of social innovation and sustainable economy in a slightly absurd and funny manner. The game takes us on a fun adventure through the steps of social change, leading to inter-generational discussions on how to change the world... one small step at a time.
New perspectives on creating and new narrative forms
I Love Potatoes marks the culmination of Vali Fugulin’s two-year residency at the NFB, which began in 2013 with the interactive documentary Toi, moi et la Charte ( You, Me and the Charter), co-created with Jérémie Battaglia and Nicolas S. Roy of the creative digital studio Dpt. It is Fugulin’s second digital work, following a number of linear documentaries, including Tupperware: recettes pour le succès ( Tupperware: Recipe for Success) (2006), the 2013 series Cas de conscience ( Case of Conscience) and a collaboration on the 2011 series Naufragés des villes ( Urban Castaways).
For I Love Potatoes Fugulin collaborated with Montreal-based Minority Media ( Papo & Yo), who have become celebrated on the international video game scene. The project is the latest entry in the burgeoning genre of empathy games and has Ruben Farrus, who designed the game Spirits of Spring and collaborated on Papo & Yo, as creative co-director.
Produced at the NFB by Hugues Sweeney, I Love Potatoes is one of the organization’s first forays into video game production. The game opens to international perspectives and bears the hallmarks of the NFB French Program’s Digital Studio: creating unexpected links between disciplines, with inspired teams of creators broaching new narrative forms.
Illustrations and music
Award-winning animation director Patrick Doyon provides illustrations for I Love Potatoes. Doyon’s short film Dimanche was produced at the NFB and nominated for an Oscar in 2012, and the children’s book Le voleur de sandwichs—written by André Marois and illustrated by Doyon—has been nominated for three prizes.
Original music is composed by Jean-Phi Goncalves (Beast, Cirque du Soleil Beau Dommage tribute) and Alex McMahon (producer of albums by Alex Nevsky, Yann Perreau and Catherine Major). The pair have previously garnered attention as members of the group Plaster, and together they have composed music for the Cirque Éloize show iD. Benoit Lafrance and La Hacienda Creative provided sound design and audio implementation.
The game
In the world of the game, potatoes are the fundamental resource needed to maintain social balance, and players must take action after a sudden potato shortage. Playing as the character Chips, they have to find innovative solutions and build a community that can re-establish the ecosystem required for potatoes to thrive. Playing time: 40–45 minutes.
• I Love Potatoes synopsis
Everyone loves potatoes in Potatoland, as they are the bounty on which they survive. After his village is struck with misfortune, Chips finds himself to be sorely lacking in potatoes. Through innovation and human contact, he must learn to survive without them in order to save his community and overturn the Potatosaurus Monster’s dominance.
• A game available in seven languages
English, French, Quebec French, Italian, German, Spanish and Portuguese
• Characters inspired by seven social innovators:
Chips: Since the age of six, Albeiro Vargas has been moved by the plight of abandoned homeless elderly people on the streets of Bucaramanga, Colombia. Today, his foundation helps hundreds of them.
Zepeel: Appalled by the hygiene and living conditions of her neighbourhood in Lima, Peru, Albina Ruiz created micro-enterprises collecting and recycling waste.
Tuberosa: Germaine Acogny felt that African culture was under-appreciated. She founded l’École des Sables in Senegal to help dancers from all over the continent.
Tinkerers: The children of Cateura, Paraguay worked in the dump and rarely attended school. Today, they are learning music and building their own instruments out of materials recycled from the dump.
Lower City: The non-profit organization Renaissance, in Montreal, Canada recovers tons of clothing destined for the garbage by re-selling it at low cost. This recycling creates employment and provides an opportunity for the less fortunate to buy affordable clothes.
Beach: Guy and Neca Marcovaldi were revolted by the killing of a turtle on a beach in Brazil. They created a sanctuary to protect turtles in Praia do Forte.
Mayor: Jaime Lerner found his city of Curitiba, Brazil to be polluted and congested. He has made sustainable transformations with light buses and simple initiatives such as an exchange of waste in return for food.
• Creative team
o I Love Potatoes is a Vali Fugulin game co-created by Minority and Ruben Farrus.
o Produced by Hugues Sweeney, executive producer, NFB French Program Digital Studio.
o Illustrations by Patrick Doyon.
o Original music composed by Jean-Phi Goncalves and Alex McMahon. Sound design by Benoit Lafrance ( La Hacienda Creative).
• About Vali Fugulin
Vali Fugulin has applied her human approach and distinctive aesthetic to a career in directing documentaries in television, cinema and interactive media for over 15 years. She has a particular interest in the sense of community that develops within groups at the fringes of society: from the young women selling plastic bowls in Tupperware: Recipe for Success, to the partner-swapping swingers of S'envoyer dans l'air, through to the aficionados of six degrees of separation in Le monde est petit. She recently co-directed the interactive documentary Toi, moi et la Charte at the NFB. It won the NUMIX award for best original documentary production of 2014. As artist in residence in the French Program of the National Film Board of Canada’s Digital studio, she is once more exploring the power of community with the game I Love Potatoes.
–30–
Online Screening Room: NFB.ca
Facebook: facebook.com/nfb.ca
Twitter: twitter.com/thenfb
Highroad
Darcy Cameron
High Road for the NFB
514-798-6147
darcy.cameron@highroad.com
National Film Board
Marie-Claude Lamoureux
Publicist
Tel.: 514-283-9607
Cell.: 514-297-7192
Twitter : @MC_ONF
m.c.lamoureux@nfb.ca
Lily Robert
Director, Communications, Marketing and Public Affairs, NFB
Tel.: 514-283-3838
Cell: 514-296-8261
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.
