NFB Tagged Articles at Cinematical
Guy Maddin Talks Night Mayors, Filmmaking, and Sissy Boys
Filed under: Shorts », Interviews », Toronto International Film Festival »
Guy Maddin is not your everyday director. Over the last twenty years, he's made a name for himself with his beautifully hazy black and white shorts and features, from the docufantasia wonder of My Winnipeg to the hops-filled thrills of Isabella Rossellini and The Saddest Music in the World. These projects have inspired many to call him the Canadian David Lynch, but while the two create rich fantasies for their films to thrive in, Maddin's always have a clear-cut narrative. The path might be surreal, strange, and utterly fantastical, but it's also easily understandable. With his latest, Night Mayor, Maddin turned an ode for the NFB's 70th anniversary into the tale of an immigrant who harnesses the power of the aurora borealis to help teach Canadians their national identity.
During TIFF, Cinematical had a chance to talk to the filmmaker about how Night Mayor came to be, Maddin's cinematic process, the magic of collaboration, and his next project (a choose-your-own adventure!). On top of more timely chatter, Guy also took a moment to share the story behind Sissy Boy Slap Party (my favorite guilty pleasure), and how a moment of spite turned into a memorable short.
TIFF Shorts Roundup: From Night Mayors to Runaways
Filed under: Festival Reports », Shorts », Toronto International Film Festival »
Toronto might have its own short film extravaganza -- the Worldwide Short Film Festival -- a week rife with pithy pieces of cinema. But every year, just a few months later, there's a second serving at TIFF with the collection Short Cuts Canada.
This year, the NFB (National Film Board of Canada) had a bunch of shorts in the mix, and when I got a handful in the mail, it was like an Oscar-led explosion. Talent abounds in these films. That's not entirely surprising considering the fact that we've got the latest from Oscar-winner Chris Landreth and Oscar-nominee Cordell Barker, plus a slew of other notable talent. Talent, I must say, that's topped with Night Mayor, the short the NFB commissioned Guy Maddin to do as part of the board's 70th anniversary.
Read on for the details of Night Mayor, Vive the Rose, The Spine, and Runaway.
Guy Maddin Celebrates the NFB with a New Film
Filed under: Comedy », Independent », Deals »
Usually the insane brilliance of avant garde filmmakers would suffer under outside influence, but thus far, that hasn't been the case with Guy Maddin. On the heels of Brand Upon the Brain!, he gave us My Winnipeg, just about the best feature-length public service announcement or ode to a city one could imagine. It was meant to be part of a Canadian city collection that never materialized, and we can thank our lucky stars that his take ever made it to fruition.And now he's showing the Canadian love again! The NFB has announced that Maddin is making a film called Night Mayor for the NFB's 70th anniversary. There are no details on what this film will entail (not that details ever help describe a Maddin world), but it will be a short drama created after Maddin immersed himself in the NFB archives. "What he has envisioned is an imaginative cinematic riff on the significance of a public film producer."
The Canadian public moviemaking model has created a lot of unique visions over the years (Atom Egoyan, Sarah Polley, David Cronenberg, Don McKellar, Deepa Mehta...) and can you imagine Maddin riffing on any of them?
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Is Canada's NFB Film Library the Next Archives in Danger?
Filed under: Tech Stuff », Politics », Cinematical Indie »
What in the world is up with this new, seemingly unstoppable flippancy regarding film archives? Ingmar Bergman dies, then his archives are in trouble. Then, Michaelangelo Antonioni's archives were said to be suffering from the same, money-needing fate. Now, The Globe and Mail has reported that Canada's National Film Board (NFB) archives are in peril. After these stories, I'm liking Amazon's deal with The National Archives and Records Administration more and more.
It seems that the NFB had an internal audit in the spring, and findings indicate that while the library is well-maintained, there is a definite possibility that the films will deteriorate. Why? Because of continual handling -- the audit says that approximately 300 boxes are moved around the storage vaults each day. Of course, the audit says: "Creating digital master copies reduces the risk of the original material deteriorating, an evident risk when the film has to be handled for the purposes of reproduction." The US needed Amazon to step up to make that happen, so I really doubt it is something that the NFB could pull off on its own.
And it doesn't look like the government is interested in helping either. In a statement through the Canadian Heritage Department, the office of the new Heritage Minister (Josée Verner) said: "The board is a departmental agency, and is responsible for its own day-to-day operations...including conducting and acting upon the recommendations of their internal audits." Talk about hands-off! No Amazon. No government help. The NFB better find some rich film lovers. This is, obviously, a specific problem for Canadian films in the NFB vaults, but it is also telling of the struggle to maintain archives around the world. Something has to change, before our video history becomes dust.
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