October 8, 2015 – Montreal – National Film Board of Canada (NFB)
As the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) meets with the global audiovisual community at MIPCOM, it’s already tied up deals for some of its high-profile documentary features, with sales to Al Jazeera Satellite and TF1’s Histoire.
Al Jazeera Satellite has just acquired international rights to The Wanted 18, an animated documentary exploring one of the strangest chapters in the Israeli‒Palestinian conflict. Co-directed by acclaimed Palestinian visual artist Amer Shomali and veteran documentarian Paul Cowan, The Wanted 18 revisits Shomali’s village of Beit Sahour during the First Intifada, when this tiny suburb of Bethlehem decided to create a co-operative dairy farm―only to have its 18 cows declared “a threat to the State of Israel” and become a symbol of resistance.
Blending interviews, archival footage and claymation, The Wanted 18 has been hailed by critics and honoured at festivals around the world, winning Best Documentary Film from the Arab World at the Abu Dhabi Film Festival, the Golden Tanit for Best Documentary Film at the Carthage Film Festival, and Best Documentary at Michael Moore’s Traverse City Film Festival, among other awards. Al Jazeera Satellite has acquired English-language rights worldwide excluding USA, and Arabic-language rights worldwide.
Meanwhile, French broadcaster Histoire, part of the TF1 Group, has also just acquired rights to two NFB historical docs:
Alain Vézina’s Sombré dans l’oubli: L’histoire de l’Empress of Ireland (Journey to Oblivion: The Empress of Ireland Story) is the definitive documentary look at the sinking of the Empress of Ireland, with the loss of over a thousand souls. Remastered in HD with additional footage to commemorate the 100th anniversary of this maritime disaster, the film showcases the most astonishing underwater footage of the wreck ever filmed, providing viewers with a virtual guided tour, allowing them to view relics never before filmed.
Legendary Quebec filmmaker Jean-Claude Labrecque’s Sur les traces de Maria Chapdelaine (Remembering Maria Chapdelaine) retraces the astounding cinematographic undertaking of French director Julien Duvivier, who arrived in the Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean region of Quebec in 1934 to shoot a film adaptation of Louis Hémon’s famous novel.
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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.
