Time Flies When You’re Watching Films

According to the Steve Miller Band, time keeps on slipping into the future.

Indeed, from clocks, to calendars to that often neglected agenda we all keep in our rooms, the concept of time is a constant presence in our daily lives. It’s only natural, then, for filmmakers to attempt to capture and express this most ephemeral of subjects on camera. And, burning the midnight oil, we’ve managed to find three films in the NFB archive that all deal with the subject of time in different, albeit equally entertaining, ways

So, grab a big blue police box and relax. Here, presented in no particular chronological order, are three films for you to binge watch and waste some time with.

The End of Time

Featuring wonderful cinematography, this ruminating documentary looks at time from a variety of different angles. Traveling from the volcanoes of Hawaii, to the Large-Hadron Collider in Switzerland, to the inner-city of Detroit to sacred Buddhist temples, filmmaker Petter Mettler discusses the concept of time with leading experimental physicists, monks, environmentalists, social activists, Canadian electronic DJs and even his own mother.

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From the Big Bang to Tuesday Morning

This fun, short animation is about exactly what it describes in the title: depicting the evolution of life on earth from its most primitive birth pangs all the way to the first hominids and, finally, finishing in the modern day. Stylized with gorgeous pencil-dawn art and funny moments, this animation is sure to stay with you for a long time.

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Mirrors of Time

This educational animation is ready to answer any question you have about time.

From ancient Babylon and beyond, this film dissects and unravels the mysteries of time, and, in particular, examines how human societies have related to it throughout our history. From why we have calendars, to the reason we have seasons, to how we came up with a 365 day year, Mirrors of Time is an enjoyable time-based odyssey.

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Tour Parliament Hill From Your Living Room

Over March Break I took my kids to Ottawa for a quick two-day trip. I planned visits to the Science and Technology Museum, the History/Children’s Museum, and the Bank of Canada museum. We stayed at a hotel with an indoor waterpark and ate tons of food that was bad for us. In the middle of all the fun, I also scheduled a tour of Parliament, figuring I’d squeeze a little education on Canadian politics into the trip.

Wouldn’t you know, the parliament tour turned out to be the kids’ favourite stop? We lucked out with an amazing tour guide, Elyse, who was dynamic, fun, and really knew her stuff. My son pleasantly surprised me when he was able to answer all her questions along the way (Who was the first Prime Minister of Canada? Which is the only room to survive the fire? When did the fire take place? Etc., etc.). My daughter thrilled me by raising her hand at every stop and asking her own series of questions.

My son told me afterwards that it was great to see all the things he was learning about in class; that it somehow makes it tangible. I remembered my own trip to Ottawa when I was in school, and the impression that left on me, being able to sit in the gallery and watch the House in session. It made me realize how lucky we are to be able to take these tours. And then Elyse dropped the bomb.

In the fall of 2018, the Centre Block of Parliament will be shutting down for a period of 10 years while the building undergoes some much-needed renovations. That means a generation of children won’t have the opportunity to tour this important landmark and, for example, discover why half of Queen Victoria’s crown is missing in her official portrait. I immediately scoured our collection to see what we had that might help lessen the blow, and these are the films I found.

Capital City

Filmed in 1957, this delightful film introduces us to a charming retiree who spends his summer serving as an Ottawa tour guide. Even though we don’t get to go inside, he begins his tour at Parliament, and gives a decent rundown of what you’d find inside the building. As a bonus, he takes us through the rest of the city, as well, giving us a rundown of Ottawa’s history.

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Canada’s Capital: Behind the Scenes

Same idea as Capital City, completely different approach. Filmed a little more recently (1989), this short film uses teens and humour to explore the nation’s capital and explain how it functions to a wide audience. This film comes with a bonus of its own – 80’s hair!

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Our National Parliament – The Inside Story

Unfortunately, this one is only available to teachers with a CAMPUS account, but it’s a good one and worthy of inclusion on this list. If you’re a teacher who will lose the opportunity to take your students on the real tour, keep this film in your back pocket. It’s a great guide to what goes on in Parliament, and how it affects the lives of Canadians. It explains the roles of the Prime Minister, Cabinet, and opposition parties; the nuts and bolts of how a bill moves from conception to law; and the daily life of a back-bench MP.

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Image credit: Wikipedia

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NFB Pause: Marc St-Pierre Time Travels Everyday

Meet collections curator Marc St-Pierre, who’s been honing his craft for the past fifteen years.

Marc, who sees himself as a “custodian of collective memory,” developed his expertise over time and somewhat by chance, with long hours spent sifting through the NFB vaults, which encompass 80 years of history and represent what he calls “our filmed family album.”

Nostalgia Trip

Marc’s job, among other things, involves “dusting off” archival footage of a bygone Montreal, and learning why these images matter to today’s audiences. When he immerses himself in the 1940s or ’50s, he not only witnesses the evolution of society, but sees old faces anew, notices different ways of speaking, and rediscovers familiar places, among many other finds.

All in all, Marc says, it’s like a time-travel trip that renders him nostalgic for his days growing up in the 1970s, but also for periods that he never experienced firsthand, which goes to prove the exceptional evocative power of the moving image. Here are a few of his favourite films:

La vraie vie

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Les vrais perdants

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Le steak

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Le confort et l’indifférence

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Les porteurs d’espoir

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Player’s Lounge: Bet On Yourself

Player’s Lounge lets you play video games online for money.

Win Real Money

The online element of major gaming systems have made video games more fun and competitive. It’s easy to connect with friends or strangers from around the world. While gamers have been upping the stakes on their digital games for years by putting money on the line, there wasn’t a centralized place to process those bets until Player’s Lounge came along. Player’s Lounge lets you win money by playing against anyone in the world on Xbox One, PS4, or PC. The way it works is simple: the site matches you with someone else who’s willing to take your bet, you play, and then you either lose money or cash out.

Head-to-Head or Tournament Play

Player’s Lounge is such a simple concept that it’s surprising that it hasn’t been done before. Of course, there are likely legal complications considering the problematic nature of betting online for real money. In addition to the “head-to-head” matches in which gamers are paired with a single opponent, there’s also the option to participate in tournaments. There are always both paid and free tournaments running on Player’s Lounge. The site lets users play most sports games, including FIFA, Madden, and 2K. You can also play the newly popular battle royale game Fortnite. If you’re good enough at any of those games, there’s a chance you could win money playing them on Player’s Lounge.

Player’s Lounge: Bet On Yourself posted first on http://film-streamingsweb.blogspot.com

Forest: Stay Focused, Be Present

Forest is an app that helps you stay focused in a pleasant way.

Focus On Your Forest

The web has made us all a bit more hyperactive, a bit more easily distracted. There’s simply too much to do at any given moment. It’s hard to stay focused. There are numerous apps and products out there that purport to help hone your focus while you’re on the web, but Forest is by far the most pleasant and positive of them all. Forest, which is available on iOS, Android, and as a Chrome Extension, lets you “plant trees” while you accomplish whatever task you have set out to do. The tree begins growing as soon as you click to plant it, and it dies as soon as you click out of the app.

Put Your Phone Down

Forest includes a timer that counts down each time a tree is being planted, showing the amount of time it will take until the tree is fully grown. Once it is fully grown, you can add it to your forest, as visual proof that you spent a substantial amount of time focused on the task at hand without being distracted by the allure of the web’s infinite possibilities. The app is also collaborative, allowing you to plant trees with friends while working on a shared task. The app also gives you detailed statistics about how much you use your phone, almost like a Health app for phone usage. If you’re anything like the rest of the world, the app should convince you to put the phone down more often and start growing some more trees. At $1.99, it’s a somewhat steep price to pay for Forest. However, the Chrome extension is free. And either way, both are worth it.

Forest: Stay Focused, Be Present posted first on http://film-streamingsweb.blogspot.com

Canada’s Involvement in the Korean War

With the looming possibility of a meeting between President Trump and Kim Jong Un, Korea is once again thrust into the spotlight. Not that it’s ever very far away, mind you. In fact, before leaving office, Obama warned Trump that North Korea would be his biggest threat.

Canada had significant involvement in the Korean War. We had 26,000 troops fighting between 1950 – 1953, and some stayed on for 3 years after the war, during the peacekeeping phase.

For those of you looking for a little background, or a quick refresher, I’ve put together a couple of films about our involvement in the war, as well as a two other films that a much more personal approach to the war, and its reprecussions.

With the Canadians in Korea

For a quick primer on Canada’s involvement in the Korean war, along with some salient facts pertaining to the war itself, this short documentary does the trick. It offers a straightforward account of the goings-on in the region in 1952, right towards the end of the war. In addition, it also offers a front-line soldier’s perspective.

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Korea After the War

This short documentary, shot just two years after With the Canadians in Korea, paints a very different picture of the realities of war. While the earlier film highlighted the villages being put back together and people going back to their daily lives, this film shows us industries in ruins, towns and villages destroyed, and thousands of homeless and orphaned children left on their own. It’s a sobering account.

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Tiger Spirit

Now we fast-forward about 50 years, and move from the objective to the highly subjective, for Min Sook Lee’s emotional documentary about modern-day Korea. Her film questions the possibility of reunification as she follows the reunions of those how have been torn apart by the war, and in doing so beautifully exposes the extraordinary in the every day. The film offers a very revealing portrait of a nation divided, and a people who still carry the scars.

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Letters from Pyongyang

While we’re not offering it in free-streaming, I encourage you to download Canadian-Korean filmmaker Jason Lee’s emotional story of a family torn apart during the Korean War. It’s his father’s story Lee is telling, and together, he and his father journey to the North Korean capital in search of long-lost relatives. Side note: I was working down the hall from Jason when he was finishing this film up. I remember it being a true labour of love for him.

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NFB Pause: Patrick Bouchard is The Subject

Patrick Bouchard’s upcoming film, The Subject, is also the focus of the first installment of our new series, NFB Pause. NFB Pause consists of clips that will give you privileged access to the creative process and work of our filmmakers.

In this episode, Bouchard talks about the making of his latest film, which is essentially about introspection… literally. Bouchard crafted a life-size version of himself and went to incredible lengths to make a highly authentic film about self-exploration. And I mean incredible lengths. Seriously. Watch the clip. (In French, with English subtitles.)

The Subject

The film has already been selected as the opening film for RCVQ 2018 and is also an official selection at Annecy 2018. It’s an engaging film, on a very visceral level, making this his most personal work to date.

The Subject marks the fifth film that Patrick Bouchard has made with the NFB, three of which are currently available on NFB.ca:

The Brainwashers

To enjoy Bouchard’s films, you’ve got to like your animation dark. Or, at least appreciate darker fare. In this film, two chimney sweepers clear all memories from their victim’s brain to figure out what’s going on in his head. One commenter on the site called it, “Tim Burton meets Terry Gilliam.”

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Subservience

In this short from 2007, Bouchard explores the selfishness of the bourgeoisie and the oppression and exploitation of its servants. This is done through a puppet show that presents the tragicomedy of a society in its death throes. Also not in the “light fare” category.

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Bydlo

This was actually the first Patrick Bouchard film I ever saw, as it was made during my time at the NFB. Again focusing on the demise of our society, this film presents an even darker (yes, it’s true) allegory of mankind heading for disaster – one in which man becomes his own slave-driver. It’s gruesome, but brilliant.

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Woof Woof Bark (or 4 Films About Dogs)

Ah, dogs. They’re like wolves who really like belly rubs. Indeed, from the stalwart guarding of a Great Dane, to the yelping moxie of a tiny Chihuahua, dogs are perhaps our most endearing companions and loyalest of friends.*

So, pawing around the NFB archival backyard, we’ve dug up some old treasure in the form of four films that revolve around our favourite furry ruffians. Simultaneously funny, heart warming and entertaining, these candid films about canines offer a personal perspective that goes to the very center of the relationship between human beings and our four-legged doggy life-partners.

* Take that, cats.

I want a Dog

Based on the Dayal Kaur Khalsa book of the same name, this adorable, short animation follows May, a young girl who desires a dog more than anything else in the universe. The problem is, however, that her parents remain adamant that she should wait until she is older. But, keeping with her motto of  “if first you don’t succeed, try try again” May refuses to give up. With a catchy soundtrack you’ll be humming all day, this charming animation is sure to put a smile on your face.

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Every Dog’s Guide to Complete Home Safety

Meet Wally, he’s a good boy. He’s also very concerned about safety. Which turns out to be very handy when he’s assigned to a new home with owners who are quite low on safety consciousness. So watch as Wally provides over 40 handy safety tips and tricks for homes with young children in this endearing, short, funny animation.

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The Sparky Book

A film sure to tug on your heart strings, this half live-action, half animation tells the tale of a dog named Sparky(as narrated by a talking goldfish). Sparky and his human, Brigitte, are the best of friends and companions. Unfortunately, Brigitte suffers from a deliberating heart condition. A  heartbreaking film about the deep bonds between humans and dogs

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It’s a Dog’s Life

Do you like dogs? Do you like inter-galactic travel? Well, you’re sure barking up the right tree with this film. It’s a Dog’s Life follows the loveable Fifi, a dog who loves to read the science section of the newspaper and fantasizes about flying away on a spaceship. Unfortunately for him, however, Fifi is perpetually blamed for his families own follies, and what follows is an important urban fable about learning to live together. A fun film for anyone who loves dogs.

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Now Online! Discover Our Indigenous Cinema Collection

On March 22, the NFB launches a new Web page, bringing together 130 titles in English and 90 titles in French from our unparalleled collection of films by Indigenous directors.

VIEW THE INDIGENOUS CINEMA PAGE

Since 1968, the NFB has produced close to 300 films by First Nation, Inuit and Métis directors from right across Canada, offering original and timely perspectives on our country, our history and possible futures from a range of Indigenous perspectives.

Titles include Willie Dunn’s The Ballad of Crowfoot (1968), the first film made at the NFB by an Indigenous director. Sometimes referred to as Canada’s first music video, this short is a powerful look at colonial betrayals told though a ballad composed by Dunn himself about the legendary 19th-century Siksika (Blackfoot) chief. Dunn was a well-known musician on Canada’s folk music scene and a member of the Indian Film Crew—an all-Indigenous film production unit formed at the NFB in 1967. You’ll find other groundbreaking IFC titles like Mike Kanentakeron Mitchell’s You Are on Indian Land (1969), a short documentary that resonated strongly with 1960s civil-rights activists and travelled widely across Canada and the United States, including a famous screening at Alcatraz during the occupation of the infamous prison by members of the American Indian Movement; and Willie Dunn and Martin Defalco’s smouldering documentary The Other Side of the Ledger: An Indian View of the Hudson’s Bay Company (1970)—you’ll never think about the famous retailer in the same way again.

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You will also find several titles from legendary Abenaki director Alanis Obomsawin’s considerable opus, including Christmas at Moose Factory (1971), her very first film, created with children attending a residential school in the northern Ontario town of Moose Factory; and landmark films such as Incident at Restigouche (1984), which documented two police raids on the Mi’kmaq community of Restigouche in the early 1980s, and Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance (1993), Obomsawin’s feature documentary about the 1990 Oka standoff, which was shot over 78 days behind Kanien’kéhaka lines and provides a privileged insider perspective on the historic conflict. The film reverberated around the globe and made history at the Toronto International Film Festival, where it became the first documentary ever to win the Best Canadian Feature Award.

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The selection also includes other essential titles by leading Indigenous directors, like Foster Child (1987) and Totem: The Return of the G’psgolox Pole (2003), both by the late Métis director Gil Cardinal; Hands of History (1994) by Loretta Todd; Two Worlds Colliding (2004) by Tasha Hubbard; If the Weather Permits (2003) by Elisapie Isaac; and Finding Dawn (2006) by Christine Welsh.

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You can also explore recent titles like Nowhere Land (2015), by Inuk director Bonnie Ammaaq, winner of the Best Short Documentary award at imagineNATIVE in 2016; this river (2016), by celebrated Métis author Katherena Vermette and Erika MacPherson, which won Best Short Doc at imagineNATIVE the following year; Thérèse Ottawa’s award-winning short Red Path (2015); Mobilize, by multi-talented visual artist Caroline Monnet; and We Can’t Make the Same Mistake Twice (2016), by Alanis Obomsawin.

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In creating this online destination, our goal was to make it easier for audiences to find films that present Indigenous perspectives on Canadian realities. The site includes biographies for each of the directors and allows users to search for films by the nation/people of the director or the nation/people depicted in the film. Our educational team has also created curated playlists for different age levels.

The collection has been catalogued using a classification system first developed by Kanien’kéhaka (Mohawk) librarian Brian Deer in the 1970s. It’s been adapted by Camille Callison (a member of the Tahltan First Nation) for this collection and reflects best practices in organizing Indigenous collections of knowledge to meet the needs of Indigenous information seekers. For any library geeks who are reading this post, this work is absolutely fascinating—find out more about it.

In 2017, the NFB launched a three-year plan to transform relationships with Indigenous creators and audiences within the context of its role as a public producer and distributor. As a public institution with a mandate to reflect the lives, experiences and perspectives of all Canadians though the works we produce, the NFB has a role to play in the national project of reconciliation.

In its final report, Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission underlined the critical role of culture in expanding our understanding of ourselves and our history, exposing truths and laying the groundwork for renewed relationships between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Canadians: “Creative expression can play a vital role in this national reconciliation, providing alternative voices, vehicles and venues for expressing historical truths and present hopes.” Our hope is that this site can play a small part in that process.

The homepage design is based on an original painting by Eruoma Awashish, a graphic artist from the Atikamekw community of Opitciwan. The painting depicts Kakakew, the raven—a recurring character in Awashish’s work. Kakakew is the messenger. “If we take the time to listen to him,” Awashish writes, “he is here to tell us things.” The flowers in the design are Atikamekw motifs that typically adorn bark baskets, canoes, embroidered moccasins, mittens and different clothes. “I integrate them in my painting to honour my culture,” says Awashish.

Many of the films in this collection are currently being screened in communities right across Canada as part of the Aabiziingwashi (Wide Awake) Indigenous cinema screening series. Since its launch in April 2017, there have been over 700 community screenings in every Canadian province and territory.

In coming weeks, new titles will be added to this site, and eventually our full collection of Indigenous-directed works will be available for free. We hope you enjoy exploring the films featured here and that you will come back often!

VIEW THE INDIGENOUS CINEMA PAGE

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Breaking the Silence of Suicide in the Doc 1999

Sixteen years after leaving her native Acadia, Samara Grace Chadwick returned to Moncton to shoot her first feature film, 1999. Her ambitious, intimate and nuanced documentary delves into the memories of a community that is still shaken today to examine the wave of suicides that swept through her high school in the late 1990s.

“I had no idea how I’d feel when I arrived in Moncton, but I knew that my journey had to be a personal one,” explains Samara who, instead of spending three weeks there as planned, ended up staying three and a half years. “Maybe I was a bit naive!” she says laughingly, adding that the participants in her film quickly became friends with whom she spent all her time.

Was it hard to find people who were willing to revisit these painful episodes of their teen years? “The Monctonians I know in Montreal were rather reticent, but it was the opposite in Moncton: A lot of people approached me and wanted to share their stories. The attitudes of those who had left and those who had stayed were totally different.”

Intersecting emotional paths

Far from being an objective investigation, Samara’s film asserts its subjective point of view from the start. “My documentary doesn’t correspond to what people generally expect. It doesn’t investigate a phenomenon. It doesn’t set out to describe, blame or identify causes,” explains the young filmmaker.

Instead, 1999 draws on the individual recollections of a community’s members and their personal photos, diaries and amateur videos from that period. The moments when participants rummage through their own archives and share their findings among themselves or with Samara result in some highly charged emotional shots. Everyone opens up. They reconnect with their “adolescent selves” and, inevitably, with the tragedy associated with that period of their lives.

“People have been living with this story for twenty years. They each have a subjective version, which is genuine… even if it might be objectively false. I found it interesting to observe how all our individual stories have shaped us in our adult lives,” mused Samara. She believes that despite the variety of stories gathered, their common denominators are isolation – since there has been little discussion on the subject – and therefore the almost fundamental need to talk about it.

Instinctive editing techniques

Instead of opting for linear editing, the memories and reactions of the former students of Mathieu-Martin High School were edited based on the principle of association via recollection. To achieve this, the filmmaker says she relied heavily on the reaction of Tara Jean Long, an editor she worked with for six months to assemble the film and who had not personally witnessed the events in question.

“Tara edits with truly profound emotional intelligence and I was attentive to the scenes that made her laugh or cry. When that happened, it meant we were striking a universal chord, so we kept the scenes. And they usually weren’t about obviously emotional things. On the contrary, they dealt with more subtle moments,” recalls Samara, explaining how the interview transcripts were archived and put together according to different categories. “Our approach was both highly instinctive, following our emotions, and really rigorous, using associations together with a very structured database and visual codes.”

The result is a film that naturally focuses on suicide and grief, but also on adolescence, love and memory. Samara emotionally recalls the film’s pre-premiere in Moncton last November. “It’s such a community film and there are so many people who participated in it in one way or another. I just had to have the first screening in Moncton. It was a huge moment for me. We all experienced that together.”

At the time of our discussion, Samara was putting the final touches on her documentary’s soundtrack. She asked Acadian musicians to perform songs from the 90s for the occasion. “The outcome was incredible and we all cried when we listened to it. Since it’s a film about the 90s, we had no choice but to create a soundtrack, too!”

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Tingles: The Best Way To Enjoy ASMR

Tingles lets you stream unlimited ASMR videos.

Get The Tingles

If you’re not familiar with ASMR, you can read all about it here. It is, essentially, a tingly feeling that one gets from repeated exposure to a certain kind of stimuli. In the YouTube world, ASMR is more like code for videos of people doing somewhat strange things at low volumes, like crunching potato chips or talking softly about their groceries. For longtime fans or people who are knew to the concept, Tingles is the ultimate app for all things ASMR. The app allows people to watch videos without any interruptions for ads. You can also download videos, let videos play in the background with your screen off, and set a sleep timer so you don’t drain your battery.

The Wide World of ASMR

One of the primary reasons people stream ASMR videos is, in fact, to help them fall asleep. For those who have trouble sleeping, downloading Tingles could be a good thing to try. It’s hard to get used to the concept, but Tingles has several “Intro to ASMR” videos that can help people get accustomed to the concept. One of them is “Dutch Trigger Words,” which features the most common Dutch words that trigger relaxation. There are tons of other playlists on the app, and users can even create their own. Whether you’re skeptical of ASMR or love the concept, Tingles is a fun app to give a try.

Tingles: The Best Way To Enjoy ASMR posted first on http://film-streamingsweb.blogspot.com

Universe: Build Beautiful Websites From Your iPhone

Universe lets you make a website in under a minute.

Build Websites On Your Phone

Companies like Squarespace, Wix, Weebly and their many other competitors let users quickly and simply build websites without any coding knowledge. Although sites created on these platforms are optimized for mobile, none of them are truly built to be viewed on a mobile device. With tech increasingly headed in that direction, it’s becoming increasingly important for brands and companies to be able to display their products not just in an app, but on a mobile browser as well. Universe is an app that, like the aforementioned Squarespace and other companies, helps people with no coding knowledge build websites. Because it’s an app, all of the sites created on Universe look great on mobile.

Change Themes And Customize

Universe starts by asking users a series of questions that help build the foundation of the site. Users input whether the site is for personal, business, or creative use. They add their social media information, and fill in some key details about the other information they wish to have saved on the site. They can also add a custom domain, or use the .onuniverse.com domain that come standard with sites built on the platform. After the information is filled out, the app generates a version of your site. You can change the theme and customize the information to your liking. Universe is much more limited than Squarespace, Wix, or Weebly, but for getting a mobile-optimized site up on the web quickly, it’s worth checking out.

Universe: Build Beautiful Websites From Your iPhone posted first on http://film-streamingsweb.blogspot.com

Get Lit(erature)

Literature is great. Film is great. So, in a chocolate and peanut butter like fashion, we’ve created a list of four films that feature the two in some form or fashion.

From novelists to poets, each documentary on this list shines a spotlight on a different celebrated literary figure. These four authors come from a litany of diverse backgrounds, and all have a unique tale to tell. Informative and revealing, these films bring the author to the forefront; telling you the often human story behind your favourite literary works.

Jack Kerouac’s Road – A Franco-American Odyssey

Get on the road and off the beaten path with this first literary documentary. A writer of French-Canadian descent, Jack Kerouac helped define an era. A pioneering member of  both the Beat Generation and the counterculture movements of the 1950s and 60s, this introspective film focuses on the writer’s childhood, casting a particular spotlighting on the writer’s Canadian roots. Part drama, this film is interspersed with archival footage and interviews. A must watch for any Kerouac fan.

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Mordecai Richler: The Writer and His Roots

Our second film on this list turns its literary gaze towards the famous Montreal writer, Mordecai Richler. Digging deep into Richler’s Jewish and Canadian background, this documentary pulls back the curtain on Richler’s past and explores his inner-motivations for writing. A fun, short documentary that features excerpts and readings from the author himself.

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Margaret Atwood: Once in August

When it comes to literary giants, very few writers  come close to Margaret Atwood. This documentary follows filmmaker Michael Rubbo in his attempts (and failures) at examining the elusive and celebrated Canadian author. Incisive and funny as the author herself, the film shines with Atwood’s signature wit.

Also, there’s a scene where she puts a paper bag over her head for reasons that make complete sense in context.

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Song of Eskasoni

Eskasoni is the home of famed Mi’kmaq poet, Rita Jone. A space positively brimming with spiritual revival, this documentary grounds itself within the small Cape Breton village, using it as an anchor point to analyze both Jones herself and her cultural community. An important film that illuminates indigenous voices, this documentary explores how the poet’s cultural roots, spirituality and traditions have impacted her writing.

oehttps://http://ift.tt/2G7T4xT

The post Get Lit(erature) appeared first on NFB/blog.

Get Lit(erature) posted first on http://film-streamingsweb.blogspot.com

Explore Mental Health from 3 Different Perspectives

Approximately 20 percent of Canadians live with mental health problems. We all know someone who’s touched by mental illness – whether it be depression, anxiety, or a myriad other conditions that fall into that category.

Thankfully, over time, attitudes towards mental health have changed for the better. For the most part, therapy isn’t a taboo subject anymore, and gone is the stigma around medication. But while the widespread recognition is appreciated, it doesn’t resolve the issue that people are still suffering.

These three films look at mental illness from three different perspectives: a child’s, a group of therapy patients, and a pair of 1956 goggles.

Mystery of the Secret Room

Depression is hard to understand, even when you suffer from it. Your mind tells you things that you know aren’t true, but you can’t help but believe them. Is it chemical? Hereditary? Situational? How do we treat it? There are so many questions, and not enough answers. And if this is confusing to someone suffering from depression, imagine what it’s like for an outsider. This film looks at this mental illness through the eyes of a child; a child whose mother is suffering. It’s hauntingly beautiful and filled with emotion.

oehttps://http://ift.tt/2DDuPT1

Back into the Sun

Okay. There’s a lot you must get through to get to the meat of this film. You have to accept that it’s a product of its time. That time was 1956, and attitudes towards mental health, and women, were very different. So you need to look past the sexism, and the institutionalizing of depressed people, and the kind of condescending doctor. Frankly, I was surprised when he acknowledged that he needed Cathy’s consent to treat her. But beyond all of that, this short film looks at the unique day hospital run by Montreal’s Allen Memorial Institute. The program was designed to treat patients, while still allowing them to continue with their daily lives.

oehttps://http://ift.tt/2pmJ8XO

Drawing from Life

This short from 2008 was produced as part of our filmmaker-in-residence program. Katerina Cizek gained incredible access into the lives and therapy sessions of a group of people who have made more than two attempts at suicide. Using a mix of cinema verité-style documentary and line-drawn animation, we get to know a group of people who learned to choose life over death.

oehttps://http://ift.tt/2DBkJC9

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Adult Animation Vol. 2: Afternoon Delight

And…. we’re back. I had so much fun compiling the first collection of Adult Animation that when I saw all these great films were already online for free, I knew it was time for a follow-up post.

Enjoy 5 more films that, while animated, are definitely not for kids.

I Like Girls

This short film from Diane Obomsawin (Obom) is a compilation of several shorter films, in which different women tell the story of their first love. For the most part, it’s very sweet and tender, though like all loves stories, there are some bittersweet moments, too. It’s a celebration of the discovery of one’s sexuality, and it’s fabulous. Rated for nudity.

oehttps://http://ift.tt/2BuYnoB

My Heart Attack

This tale of a “nice Jewish boy with Buddhist inclinations” is a hybrid of animation and documentary. It’s an animated version of the true-life events experienced by filmmaker Sheldon Cohen when he suffered a heart attack several years ago. Using humour to talk about heart disease might sound strange, but Cohen pulls it off beautifully. No nudity in this one, but it is pretty adult subject matter.

oehttps://http://ift.tt/2HGoNn7

Bob’s Birthday

Shame on me for not having included this film in my first roundup of Adult Animation, but truth be told I only saw it for the first time a few months ago. Now I wonder how I could’ve lived so long without it. Zero surprise that it took home an Oscar, because who can’t relate to this movie? I mean, granted, we don’t all flaunt our stuff unknowingly in front of company, but we’ve all be in a cringe-worthy situation at some point of our life. Pure comedy gold. Nudity, and adult themes.

oehttps://http://ift.tt/2nev6pm

Carface

Claude Cloutier has created a masterpiece with this biting satire on Big Oil. It is so lush, so gorgeous, and so ultimately devastating. It starts off lovely, with a little nod to Ethel Merman-era aquatic numbers, only to get a little questionable, then dark, then downright eerie. And all the while, we’re lulled by the strains of the sultry classic Que Sera Sera. Viewer discretion advised, due to some carnifornication.

oehttps://http://ift.tt/2HEtu0w

Sweet Childhood

Oh, this film. I love this film. I adore this film. It is so perfect. I have cassette tapes like this. I can totally feel her agony at the end. And I do feel for her, but oh my god, it’s been a long time since I laughed like this. If you haven’t seen this film, hit the play button and find out what happens when a young woman packing boxes discovers a cassette tape she made as a child. You’ll never look at innercourse the same way again.

oehttps://http://ift.tt/2FH6j9y

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Adult Animation Vol. 2: Afternoon Delight posted first on http://film-streamingsweb.blogspot.com

The Immigrant Experience in Canada on Film

Not unlike a delicious smorgasbord, Canada is a mixture of different things. In this collection, we’ve chosen five films that illustrate the immigrant experience in Canada.

Although there are threads of similarities that run through them, these multicultural movies are ultimately as different and unique from each other as the people and groups they follow. So, watch as these five films spin tales of inclusion, finding a home, what we can learn from each other, and, perhaps most importantly, how far we still need to go.

Lights for Gita

Part of the Talespinners collection, this short animated film follows Gita, an 8 year-old girl who can’t wait to celebrate her favourite holiday: Divali, the Hindu festival of lights. However, things go from bad to worse as a perilous snow storm strikes down the power, leaving Gita in darkness and, worst of all, ruining her party! Just as she thinks the festival is over, the glimmering, glittering ice outside begins to illuminate her imagination, and, with her friend and family, she experiences the festival in a brand new way.

oehttps://http://ift.tt/2pfKfYx

Mediterraneo Sempre – Mediterranean Forever

Buongiorno! This film goes to the heart of the Italian immigrant community living in Montreal. Beginning his journey in a small village in Calabria, Italy, filmmaker Nicola Zavaglia traces his own cultural roots all the way from the Mediterranean to the shores of Canada in this fun documentary.

oehttps://http://ift.tt/2IsHXhh

From Harling Point

Take a trip to the Harling Point Chinese cemetery in Victoria, British Columbia. This documentary traces the history of the cemetery all the way back to its controversial beginnings, to periods of long neglect and, finally, to its revival as a national heritage site. In many ways, the story of the cemetery serves as a metaphor for the immigrant experience as a whole, what we can learn from it, and the struggles and celebrations which follow.

oehttps://http://ift.tt/2pfWHrg

From Far Away

From Far Away follows the story of Saoussan as she adjusts from her life in Lebanon to her new home in Canada. Based on the Children’s Book of the same name, this animated short is both thoughtful and funny as it explores themes of belonging, adjustment and acceptance.

oehttps://http://ift.tt/2IuTZXK

In Canada

From Hong Kong, Afghanistan, Germany, Mexico and all over the world, In Canada is a touching, funny and insightful film. Featuring interviews from those who lived through it, this documentary offers a personal perspective; revealing the intimate and  human stories behind those who experienced the immigration process first hand, and the challenges they face.

oehttps://http://ift.tt/2pgnPX5

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The Masters Series: Evelyn Lambart

Evelyn Lambart is known as the First Lady of Animation, and was in fact the first female animator to work at the NFB. She joined in 1942, and naturally worked on films for the war effort. She then spent a significant amount of time working by Norman McLaren’s side, animating several of his most famous films with him. Then finally, she struck out on her own.

Lambart was a pioneer in her time, and helped pave the way for generations of women animators who followed in her footsteps.

Begone Dull Care

In one of her earlier collaborations with McLaren, the duo experimented with painting directly onto the filmstrip. They played with colours, shapes, lines, and movements, and then set the entire thing to soothing sounds of the Oscar Peterson Trio.

oehttps://http://ift.tt/2EKYFGt

Lines Horizontal

Ever the experimental pair, Lambert and McLaren are at it once again. This time, they’re making lines directly onto the film strips, and setting them against different-coloured backgrounds, which change with the music. Folk music replaces jazz as Pete Seeger plays wind and string instruments.

oehttps://http://ift.tt/2tHQE47

Fine Feathers

This animated short marked Evelyn Lambart’s first solo film after striking out on her own. She uses cut-outs as her animation technique to tell the tale of two birds fighting to change their plumage. It’s a morality tale about the consequences of vanity, and marked a strong debut for Lambart.

oehttps://http://ift.tt/2GqWPMM

Mr. Frog Went A-Courting

This film is a perennial favourite amongst NFB fans and employees alike. It’s a vibrant film, and the music and animation are fantastic, but first you have to get past the inter-species relationship and the rather grim conclusion. It seems almost subversive for its time.

oehttps://http://ift.tt/2Iesi50

The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse

Almost 40 years after joining the Board, Evelyn Lambart proves she’s still got it with this charming take on one of Aesop’s classic fables. Using what has become known as her signature style, she crafts the tale of the two mice with completely different lifestyles. And I just have to say – I love how she uses human hands in these films.

oehttps://http://ift.tt/2GofUz1

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Grabr: Shop Overseas Products

Grabr helps you get anything in the world delivered to you by a trusted traveler.

Shop All Around The World

Despite the increasing globalization of the world, it’s still sometimes impossible to buy items being sold and shipped from another country. Grabr has set out to change this hurdle. Rather than having to fly somewhere to get a product that you want, Grabr helps you find a trusted traveler who can bring that product to you. Grabr has a unique platform for carrying out these transactions. Users begin by pasting a link to the item that they’re seeking to buy from any online store. Then, a Grabr traveler who has plans to visit your city can make you an offer to pick up the item and bring it to you. If you accept, then the transaction is confirmed and you meet the Grabr traveler to collect your item.

Avoid High Shipping Fees

Shopping on Grabr is also a way to circumnavigate expensive shipping fees. A Grabr traveler might be willing to bring your item to you for less than the cost of shipping through the company selling the product. Of course, in order for everything to go smoothly, a lot has to work correctly. There has to be a Grabr traveler headed to your city, so you most likely have to live in a major metropolis. You have to find an offer that works for you, and arrange to meet up with the Grabr traveler in person. It’s an extremely innovative concept, but it may be difficult to sustain long term. For now, though, if you need something from another country that you can’t ship to your door, consider giving Grabr a gander.

Grabr: Shop Overseas Products posted first on http://film-streamingsweb.blogspot.com