Vancouver – The National Film Board of Canada (NFB) selection at the 2024 Calgary International Film Festival (Sept. 19–29) will feature eight captivating explorations of personal journeys and transformations: three new feature-length documentaries and five short works.
DGC Canadian Documentary Competition
7 Beats Per Minute by Yuqi Kang (Intuitive Pictures/NFB, 100 min)
Producers: Ina Fichman (Intuitive Pictures); Sherien Barsoum (NFB)
Press kit: mediaspace.nfb.ca/epk/7beatsperminute
- Mongol Chinese Canadian filmmaker Yuqi Kang followsfreediving champion Jessea Lu’s return to the site of her near-death experience, to face the traumas of her past. With intimate cinéma vérité camerawork, underwater imagery and personal interviews, 7 Beats Per Minute places the audience and the filmmaker herself in the immediacy of the experience, when barometric pressure compresses the body, the heart slows and the pulse drops.
A Man Imagined by Brian M. Cassidy and Melanie Shatzky (NFB, 62 min)
Produced by Rohan Fernando
Press kit: mediaspace.nfb.ca/epk/a-man-imagined
- Pushing at the limits of non-fiction cinema, A Man Imagined is a bracingly intimate and hallucinatory portrait of 67-year-old Lloyd, a man with schizophrenia surviving amidst urban detritus and decay. This “documentary fable” by the maverick filmmaking duo of Brian M. Cassidy and Melanie Shatzky follows Lloyd as he sells discarded objects to motorists and passersby, revealing the existential solitude of a man at once gentle and marred by a storied past.
Wilfred Buck by Lisa Jackson (Door Number 3 Productions/NFB, 92 min)
Producers: Lisa Jackson (Door Number 3 Productions), Lauren Grant (Clique Pictures); Alicia Smith (NFB)
Press kit: mediaspace.nfb.ca/epk/wilfred-buck
- Moving between Earth and stars, past and present, this hybrid feature documentary by Anishinaabe (Aamjiwnaang) filmmaker Lisa Jackson follows the extraordinary life of Wilfred Buck, who overcame a harrowing history to reclaim ancestral star knowledge and ceremony. The film is adapted from Buck’s memoir I Have Lived Four Lives, and is executive produced by Jennifer Baichwal, Nicholas de Pencier and David Christensen (NFB).
Shorts Competition
Unblending by Michelle Ku (NFB, 1 min 38 s)
Produced by Maral Mohammadian
Press kit: mediaspace.nfb.ca/epk/unblending
- For people living with structural dissociation, falling asleep can be a challenge—a time when multiple contradictory thoughts conspire to keep you awake. Directed by Calgary-based Michelle Ku, Unblending was produced as part of the 14th edition of Hothouse.
Corpus and the Wandering by Jo Roy (NFB, 7 min 13 s)
Produced by Jeremy Mendes
Press kit: mediaspace.nfb.ca/epk/corpusandthewandering
- One dancer, one body, one phone. In a time of collective alienation and technological mass control, one woman rediscovers her soul and reclaims her mind in this short, experimental self-portrait, composed of 100 video screens and made using mixed techniques. It’s the first NFB film for director Jo Roy, born and raised in St. Albert, Alberta.
Inkwo for When the Starving Return by Amanda Strong (Spotted Fawn Productions/NFB, 18 min 27 s)
Producers: Amanda Strong (Spotted Fawn Productions), Maral Mohammadian (NFB), Nina Werewka (Spotted Fawn Productions)
Press kit: mediaspace.nfb.ca/epk/inkwo-for-when-the-starving-return
- Michif/Métis creator Amanda Strong’s Spotted Fawn Productions/NFB co-pro Inkwo for When the Starving Return is a stop-motion animated adaptation of a short story by Richard Van Camp, in which a gender-shifting warrior uses their Indigenous medicine (Inkwo) to protect their community from a swarm of terrifying creatures. Featuring such voice talents as Paulina Alexis and Tantoo Cardinal, both from Alberta.
Maybe Elephants by Torill Kove (Mikrofilm/NFB, 16 min 43 s)
Producers: Lise Fearnley (Mikrofilm), Maral Mohammadian (NFB), Tonje Skar Reiersen (Mikrofilm)
Press kit: mediaspace.nfb.ca/epk/maybe-elephants
- Maybe Elephantsis a playful and loving autobiographical homage to animator Torill Kove’s three formative years in Kenya—and the therapeutic power of memories, however unreliable. The Oscar-winning director of The Danish Poet, Kove narrates the film, which features the return cast of her Academy Award-nominated short Me and My Moulton. The film was made with the collaboration of several Kenyan Canadians who played the roles of Kenyan characters and with whom Kove consulted on Swahili language and Kenyan culture.
Am I the skinniest person you’ve ever seen? by Eisha Marjara (Compass Productions Inc./9466-7565 Québec Inc./NFB, 24 min 6 s)
Producers: Joe Balass (Compass Productions); Ariel Nasr (NFB)
Press kit: mediaspace.nfb.ca/epk/am-i-the-skinniest-person-youve-ever-seen
- “Hey, let’s go on a diet together.” As kids in a small Quebec town, Eisha and Seema were more than sisters, they were soul mates, and a joint diet offered a shared sense of purpose. But their carefree project would take a dark turn, pushing Montreal director Eisha Marjara to the very brink of death. Consumed by anorexia, she found herself battling her own fragile body—stranded between childhood and adulthood.