Offerings on nfb.ca in October include the online premiere of the documentary A Return to Memory by acclaimed filmmaker Donald McWilliams. Women’s History Month, International Animation Day, Latin American Heritage Month and Halloween also highlighted.

October 2, 2024 – Montreal – National Film Board of Canada (NFB)

Not-to-be-missed new releases produced or co-produced by the NFB are coming to nfb.ca in October. The feature-length documentary A Return to Memory, by renowned director Donald McWilliams, will be launched on nfb.ca on October 18 to mark Women’s History Month in Canada. Meanwhile, the acclaimed animated shorts Aphasia by Marielle Dalpé and Miserable Miracle by Ryo Orikasa will stream beginning on October 28 in celebration of International Animation Day.

October is also rich in cultural events, and nfb.ca remains an online destination of choice for insights into important topics. Our collection curators have designed themed channels and a blog entry to mark Latin American Heritage Month and Halloween, among other events.

Highlighting the rich collection of more than 14,000 works that it is preserving, digitizing and restoring, the NFB will also be marking World Day for Audiovisual Heritage on October 27. These works have been made widely accessible and continue to inspire the creation of new films based on archives, including Donald McWilliams’s A Return to Memory. Currently, more than 7,000 films are available to stream online free of charge at nfb.ca, along with over 100 interactive works.

NEW ONLINE RELEASES

Starting October 18, to mark Women’s History Month

• A Return to Memory by Donald McWilliams (2024, NFB) – ONLINE PREMIERE
  Feature documentary (116 min)
  Press kit: mediaspace.nfb.ca/epk/memory
  
  The intrepid women who helped create Canadian cinema come to vibrant life in A Return to Memory, a documentary illuminating their vital but little-known role in establishing Canada’s National Film Board during World War II. Juxtaposing a dazzling array of archival material with dynamic animation by NFB infographics artist Mélanie Bouchard, director Donald McWilliams evokes the years when women played a key part in transforming the NFB into a major international studio. Pioneering figures like Evelyn Spice Cherry, Red Burns and Jane Marsh Beveridge made movie history, creating work that spoke to the world with a distinctive Canadian voice.

• Channel: Representing Gender Equality and Diversity
  
  As a complement to this newly produced documentary, explore this compelling selection of nearly 30 films about the major contributions that women and gender-diverse communities have made to the growth, development, character and identity of Canada.
  
  Watch Courtney Montour’s Mary Two-Axe Earley: I Am Indian Again (2021) and Karen Cho’s Status Quo? The Unfinished Business of Feminism in Canada (2012), among other films.

Starting October 28, to celebrate International Animation Day*

• Aphasia by Marielle Dalpé (2023, NFB)
  Animated short (3 min 45 s)
  Press kit: mediaspace.nfb.ca/epk/aphasia
  
  Aphasia is an unsettling sensory experience that immerses us in the world of people with Alzheimer’s disease who are facing the loss of their language capabilities. The film is voiced in English by veteran actor Clare Coulter and has been selected to screen at a dozen festivals in Canada and around the world.

• Miserable Miracle by Ryo Orikasa (2023, Miyu Productions/NFB/New Deer)
  Animated short (8 min)
  Press kit: mediaspace.nfb.ca/epk/miserable-miracle
  
  Inspired by the poems and drawings of Henri Michaux, Miserable Miracle takes animation to the breathtaking limits of language and perception, with Tony Robinow’s feverish voiceover in English. The film won the Grand Prize for Short Animation at the Ottawa International Animation Festival (OIAF) and was selected to screen at the Clermont-Ferrand Festival.

• Channel: Experimental Animation
  
  This selection features the best of our experimental animated films, from classics like Very Nice Very Nice by Arthur Lipsett and Blinkity Blank by Norman McLaren to recent shorts like No Objects by Moïa Jobin-Paré and THE TESLA WORLD LIGHT by Matthew Rankin.
  
  *In 2002, the International Animated Film Association (ASIFA) launched International Animation Day to commemorate the first public performance of Émile Reynaud’s Théâtre Optique at the Musée Grévin in Paris on October 28, 1892. This celebration is now held in over 40 countries.

SPECIAL PROGRAMMING – CULTURAL EVENTS
THEMED CHANNELS AND BLOG POST

Celebrating Latin American Heritage Month

• Channel: Latinx-Canadian Cinema
  
  Discover the different phases of NFB films made in Latin America, or by Latin Americans, from the mid-1970s until today. Don’t miss Bianca Shonee Arroyo-Kreimes My World, Your Melody (2024), Rosana Matecki’s Saturday Night (2021) and Jorge Fajardo’s Steel Blues (1976).

• Channel: NFB Abroad: Latin America on Screen
  
  Discover nearly 30 films made across Latin America that illuminate the continent and its people, arts and culture, in addition to Canadian intersections with Latin America across the years. Watch Michèle Stephenson’s Stateless (2020) and Germán Gutiérrez’s Who Shot My Brother?, among others.

• Blog Post: “Carlos Ferrand’s Cimarrones and the Peruvian New Wave at the NFB”
  
  To mark Latin American Heritage Month, collection curator Camilo Martín-Flórez devotes this blog post to the life and work of Carlos Ferrand, an important and prolific Latin-Canadian filmmaker whose credits include roles on 22 NFB films.

To celebrate Halloween, October 31

• Channel: Halloween Movies – NFB
  Grab a bowl of candy, dim the lights, and check out the 40 or so documentaries and animated films featured on this thrilling, chilling channel! Watch Georges Hannan’s Undertaker for Life!, Jennie Williams’s Nalujuk Night and Sylvie Trouvé and Dayle Hayward’s Bone Mother.

NOW ONLINE

• Dear Audrey by Jeremiah Hayes (2021, Cineflix Media/NFB)
  Feature documentary (90 min)
  Press kit: mediaspace.nfb.ca/epk/dear-audrey
  
  Acclaimed activist-filmmaker Martin Duckworth has devoted his life to peace and justice. But now he’s put down his camera to fight for the most important cause he’s ever faced. While caring for his wife through the final stages of Alzheimer’s disease, Martin’s love deepens as he looks back on an epic life and career. This film by Montreal-based director Jeremiah Hayes is now available to stream after garnering 11 awards in Canada and around the world, along with multiple Canadian Screen Award nominations.

• To view a selection of films directed by Martin Duckworth for the NFB: Martin Duckworth – NFB

Learn more about the NFB’s filmmakers and their works:

• nfb.ca/blog/category/directors-notes

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