October 16, 2015 – Montreal – National Film Board of Canada (NFB)
Halifax’s Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21 is the first Canadian stop for the National Film Board of Canada’s #GIFnTAKE, a reboot of the classic photo booth that places participants front and centre in an NFB animated film. From October 17 to 22, visitors to the museum can step into the NFB’s new photo booth for an up-close encounter with Charlie Chamberlain, the subject of Rachel Bower’s The Singing Lumberjack. The NFB will also be streaming this short film free of charge on NFB.ca as of October 16—so you can watch it, then visit the #GIFnTAKE booth and star in it!
#GIFnTAKE is a new animated experience that lets members of the public interact with characters in sequences taken from NFB animated films. Participants can enter the booth alone or with a small group of friends, and their interaction with the animation is captured and sent to them as a GIF file that can then be shared through social media. The #GIFnTAKE is open to participants of all ages and accessible to individuals with reduced mobility. The booth will be touring various cultural events and public places all across Canada.
Halifax filmmaker Rachel Bower’s The Singing Lumberjack is available for streaming free of charge on NFB.ca starting Friday, October 16. The short brings the home-grown talent and gregarious personality of Maritimes vocalist Charlie Chamberlain back to life. A beloved member of Don Messer’s Jubilee, a hugely popular musical variety show produced at CBC Halifax from 1957 until 1969, Chamberlain had a captivating baritone and Irish-by-way-of-New Brunswick lilt that packed community halls from Gander to Nanaimo and kept folks of all ages glued to their radios and televisions. Bower blends animation, archival footage and present-day family interviews in this experimental five-minute short.
The Singing Lumberjack (5 min)
- The Singing Lumberjack is written and directed by Rachel Bower, produced by Paul McNeill and executive produced by Annette Clarke, for the NFB’s Atlantic Centre in Halifax, and Ravida Din.
- Halifax-based Rachel Bower is an award-winning filmmaker whose 2008 feature documentary, Time Apart: A History of Hope, follows Holocaust survivor Alice Zuckerman as she journeys back through Eastern Europe to reunite with her lost family. Her short film credits include In the Same Boat (2011), named best documentary at the Silver Wave Film Festival, as well as six 30-minute documentaries for CBC’s Land and Sea (2014–2015).
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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.
