TheNFB’s May Release Schedule Celebrates More Than Asian Heritage Month.

Spring is in the air, and there’s lots happening over at the National Film Board of Canada. Not only are they also celebrating Asian Heritage Month, but also recognising new talents in the medium of animation and storytelling. It’s great to see that there’s some Asian talent being recognised in this TheNFB’s Hothouse program.

Here’s a list of what’s here and coming soon:

Starting May 1
Asian Heritage Month AT THENFB

• Following a multi-award-winning festival run, Toronto creators Thao Lam and Kjell Boersma’s animated short doc Boat People uses a striking metaphor to trace one Vietnamese family’s flight across the turbulent waters of history. Our review can be read here, and it’s a strong piece to bring awareness about those grandparents who gave up a lot to give their children, and their kids a brand new life. (disclaimer: some of the video attachments are geolocked to Canada)

• The NFB’s Asian Canadian Perspectives (which includes Two Apples) and Animation by Women of Asian Descent channels, featuring over 50 new and classic works. Regarding the former, standouts include Afterlife, Tiger Spirit, The Tibetan Book of the Dead: A Way of Life, but one should not limit themselves to just this top three list of mine. As for the latter, there’s Old Dog, Showa Shinzan and The Magical Life of Long Tack Sam.
• And while I’ve already offered my take on what are the most impactful, Camilo Martin-Florez offers a further discussion on seven films that explore Asian-Canadian stories and history in A Curator’s Perspective.  

Starting May 9 | Losing Blue

• For Leanne Allison’s short doc Losing Blue, what’s offered is a sweet meditation on the beauty that’s hidden in the Rocky Mountains. There’s a lot of lakes that are losing their natural pigmentation due to the changing environment. They’re not as pristine for one reason or another. Sometimes it’s due to humanity encroaching upon the area, and other times it’s simply climate change. It’s tough to point fingers at who to blame, and whether that’s needed in this work, perhaps it’s best not to judge.
  
  
  

  Instead, what this filmmaker does is to capture the beauty for those who are unable to travel, hike or journey to these phantasmagorical fountains craved by ice and wind. Nature’s beauty might be gone, and to preserve it on film may well be humanity’s last chance to preserve why these lakes are important. As a photographer, I know the challenges to capture what the eye sees. The lens may not exactly recognise what the human spirit is able to process, and as for how many hues can be translated to digital (or celluloid), this work is a technical masterpiece! (disclaimer: some of the video attachments are geolocked to Canada)

Starting May 13 | Hothouse 14

• The NFB’s residency program for emerging animators, Hothouse, returns with a fresh crop of promising animators offering their spin on this year’s theme, “Small Things Considered.” This 14th edition of Hothouse features six one-minute animated shorts by creators from across Canada: Bianca Shonee Arroyo-Kreimes (Montreal), Akash Jones (Toronto), Cameron Kletke (Calgary/Vancouver), Michelle Ku (Calgary), Mochi Lin (Montreal) and Jenny Yujia Shi (Beijing/Halifax).

  What’s been teased includes Jones’ Amma. This work shows how he deals with life as it comes hurdling after him. His mother, a second-generation immigrant, teaches him some values to live by, and with his love of comic books, he’ll be a hero in no time! And in Yujia Shi’s Red Star Alley, “In A vine takes root in old Beijing, witnessing the passage of time in a traditional hutong as this neighbourhood undergoes radical transformation.” 

  A closer look will be provided closer to the premiere.

Starting May 24 | Malartic

• The hard-hitting feature doc Malartic (franC doc films/NFB) by Quebec filmmaker Nicolas Paquet chronicles the broken promises behind the biggest open-pit gold mine in Canada. The film serves as a troubling case study of an opaque decision-making system, where history seems to be repeating itself. Malartic debuts online following a world premiere at Les Rendez-vous Québec Cinéma and a much-discussed theatrical run across Quebec.

Starting May 27 | Don’t Let the Sun Catch You Crying

• A short meditation on love, grief and imagination, Don’t Let the Sun Catch You Crying is a hand-drawn animated documentary created through a collaboration between mother, elder and narrator Edith Almadi and the Winnipeg visual art duo Natalie Baird and Toby Gillies.