The NFB's upcoming online releases

The National Film Board of Canada just released its list of films that will be put online free over the next three months. And it contains some real gems.

A pair of animated films, including one by Richard Condie. should be high on your must-watch list. Condie's The Apprentice is one of the weirdest pieces of animation I've ever seen. It's not so much the technique -- which features Condie's typical wavy-lined, buck-toothed characters, but the bizarreness of the story, such as it is. As a former NFB colleague (I don't work there now, but I used to) once said to me, "If you can figure out what the hell it's about, let me know."

The other animation classic here is What on Earth? It's done newsreel-style, as Martians study our planet and conclude that it is ruled by the automobile. Still as funny today as when it was released in 1966.

Oscar-winner Terre Nash's Who's Counting: Marilyn Waring on Sex, Lies and Global Economics is one of those Film Board perennials. Well over a decade after its release, I run into people who have seen it and for whom Marilin Waring's message resonates. That message is that there has to be a better way to measure economic progress than GDP -- one that takes into account benefits that are not currently measured.

The Devil You Know: Inside the Mind of Todd McFarlane, directed by Kenton Vaughan, is a portrait of one weird dude. You may know Todd McFarlane as the creator of Spawn -- but did you know he was a minor-league ballplayer who says he would have gladly given up his comics career for a chance to play baseball in the Major Leagues?

Passchendaele, Paul Gross's monumental First World War labour of love, is also going online. Haven't seen this one, so I can't comment -- but clearly the NFB was smart to get these digital rights in exchange for their participation in the film.

RIP a Remix Manifesto is already available free online, but chopped up into chapters. I'm assuming the upcoming nfb.ca release will let us Canadians watch the whole thing in one piece. (It's already available in the US as a pay-what-you-want download.) RIP is a good intro to the copyright wars, even though it conflates a couple of different issues: file sharing and use of original works in remixes, and seems to treat them as though they're the same thing.

For teachers, the Science, Please! series (Une minute de science, in French) offers funny little videos on basic science subjects. This is the perfect format for them, as long as a class is outfitted with wireless access, computer and projector.

Finally, there's an irony in the fact that Colin Low's The Children of Fogo Island is near the top of this list. The irony doesn't have to do with the film -- a simple, beautiful evocation of childhood -- but with the format. Colin once told me that he would rather have a church basement full of people engaged in watching a film than a national broadcast that was seen by far more people, but had far less impact on each individual. I'm not sure what he thinks of digital media and viewing phones solo at your computer, or on your phone.

Some good viewing, and if you download the NFB iPhone app, you can take it with you.

Ted Hutten -- local farmer finds a niche

The 2009 Nova Scotia Food Summit just wrapped up: three days of meetings in the heart of the province's agricultural country.

In conjunction with the summit, mainland Nova Scotia's CBC Radio One morning program, Information Morning, ran a number of stories on local food and food security.

One of them was my 5-minute documentary on farmer Ted Hutten. He's been farming since age 18, and he and his wife (who, apparently, he has known since he was two!) bought the land they currently farm from his mother.

Hutten started off growing what he calls Dutch immigrant fare: green beans, potatoes, carrots. But he soon realized there was a niche to be filled in the exotic vegetable market. Now he grows all kinds of Asian greens and radishes, and he has a devoted following among customers with Middle Eastern and East Asian backgrounds.

I talked to Hutten and some of his customers at the Halifax Farmers' Market recently. (It meant getting there for 7 AM -- I should have been paid double). The documentary runs five minutes, and you can listen to it in mp3 format here.

Michael Moore talks newspapers

At the Toronto International Film Festival.

Tobias Beale and Paul's Hall on CBC's Maritime Magazine

My half-hour radio documentary on Tobias Beale is now online here.

Tobias is a music teacher who lives near Halifax. And he tells great, great stories.

In some ways, it's been a rough year for Tobias. He's spent 15 years devoted to teaching music, and he finds himself doing it in an environment where it really doesn't seem to be a priority.

After spending 8 years teaching band at his local junior high, Tobias found himself out of a job. Today, he's a half-time band resource teacher who travels from school to school. It's crazy and fun, but not the same. He's also bought an old church hall, and is using it to revitalize a locally focused music culture, and to provide a performance space for teens.

Bonus feature: I've posted the raw audio of the first interview I did with Tobias, when I started working on this documentary several months ago. We were chatting upstairs at Paul's Hall, while three local teen bands prepared for a show downstairs.

The file runs about 25 minutes. Click to listen, or right-click to download and listen later.

The interview covers all kinds of fascinating stuff I couldn't work into the final show. I especially like Tobias's answer when I ask him why kids need performance spaces when they all have MySpace and Facebook pages to promote their music. That comes about three quarters of the way through.

Enjoy, and please share your comments by clicking the "comments" link below.

The day the greyhounds came to Musquodoboit Harbour

My 5-minute radio documentary on greyhound enthusiasts in the Maritimes is now online here.

Every few months, Greyhound Pets of Atlantic Canada arranges for a truckload of ex-racing dogs to come to the Maritimes where they will find new homes. Greyhound lovers call the day Hound Day, and they converge at GPAC founder Jeanette Reynolds' house in Musquodoboit Harbour, near Halifax, to meet the new dogs, and get them settled. And some of them will go home with new pets they have just met.

The documentary features a United Church minister with 9 greyhounds, an explanation of how to hold a greyhound's collar so the dog doesn't take off on you, and an interview with Jeanette, who has 5 greyhounds and 2 jack russells.

It doesn't feature any barking, since greyhounds are such quiet and easy-going dogs.

Our week of stewardship on Micou's Island

For a week in August, my family served as stewards on Micou's Island. It's a 22-acre jewel in St. Margaret's Bay -- one of the few islands in the bay that's not in private hands.

Being stewards meant living in the 1850s house on the island (cold running water, composting toilet, wood-fired cook stove), greeting visitors, and making sure people respected the island environment.

I also brought along a broadcast-quality recorder and made a radio documentary about our experiences -- which turned out to be a lot more eventful than we ever would have expected.

The documentary aired in Nova Scotia on the CBC Radio One program Mainstreet. You can listen to it here in mp3 format.

Griefwalker

Great story in today's Globe and Mail on Griefwalker. 

The Globe's Michael Posner writes:

There are certainly bigger, more commercial films on the roster for Montreal's World Film Festival, which opened last night, but at least thematically there's unlikely to be any as important as Griefwalker. 

Tim Wilson's compelling 73-minute documentary (on view tonight and on two occasions afterward and later scheduled to be screened at both the Atlantic and Vancouver Film Festivals) is important not for its budget or its stars, but for its subject matter. The film confronts the ultimate elephant in everyone's room: death.

I'm the marketing manager for the film, which is produced by the National Film Board.

Death might not sound like the most appealing subject for a feature documentary, but Wilson's cinematography is spectacular. This is one film worth seeing on the big screen.

It premieres at the Montreal World Film Festival this afternoon, with additional screenings tonight and tomorrow. 

All screenings at Cinéma Quartier Latin 14
350 rue Emery, Montreal. 
August 22, 2008 - 14:40
August 23, 2008 - 19:20
August 24, 2008 - 12:20

For ticket information, please call 514-848-3883.

If you want to screen a couple of clips, head over to www.nfb.ca/griefwalker.

Hofmann's Potion

Albert Hofmann, the creator of LSD, has died at age 102.

If LSD makes you think only of getting high and partying, you should take a look at Connie Littlefield's wonderful documentary Hofmann's Potion, which you can stream here (and Connie doesn't mind, because she links to it herself). Update: the stream is no more.

Hofmann and the early LSD pioneers (Cary Grant was an enthusiast) saw the drug as a powerful tool for helping people with schizophrenia and for opening up new avenues to an understanding of the functioning of the mind.

I am told by those who have tasted it that he also made delicious brandy, from his own fruit trees.

Technorati Tags: Albert Hofmann, LSD

Randy Neily

About a month ago, I interviewed Randy Neily. I was working on a documentary for the CBC Radio One show Maritime Magazine. The piece was called "Where There's Smoke, Will There Be Firefighters?" and you can listen to it here.

Randy was the deputy fire chief in Blandford, whose volunteer fire department the documentary profiled. A few weeks later, Randy passed away (there's a Facebook group celebrating his life here).

On the night I was at the Blandford fire station recording a lot of my material I wanted to speak to Randy, but something about him intimidated me. He was physically large, and didn't do a lot of the social niceties with me. We were introduced, and he went back to his business without showing much interest. I approached fire chief Philip Publicover and said I'd like to interview Randy but was feeling a bit intimidated. Did he think Randy would be amenable?

Philip laughed, said Randy might seem intimidating but wasn't. On the other hand, he didn't know how much he'd be willing to talk. Later, I approached Randy, and after some initial hesitation he agreed to be interviewed.

We sat in the fire station office, Randy under a poster for the movie Backdraft, and talked for half an hour. A couple of times we'd seem to be done and I'd turn off the recorder, but then the conversation would carry on and I'd start recording again.

In the end, I didn't wind up using any of those interviews (although if you listen really, really closely you can hear Randy laughing in the background at one point). There just wasn't room. But I learned a lot, and it was helpful.

Randy was a volunteer firefighter, paramedic and former firefighter instructor. He visited every single fire station in Nova Scotia (there are over 300 of them) and had taken photos at each place. I suggested it might make a good book -- and he said he had thought about that. I hope that archive of photos winds up somewhere where they'll be appreciated.

Here's a short clip of Randy expressing his worry about the future of the fire service, and his photos.

Where there's smoke... will there be firefighters?

"Where There's Smoke, Will There Be Firefighters?" my radio documentary on the challenges facing volunteer fire departments, is now online  It was produced by Christina Harnett, aired on CBC radio regionally, and runs 25 minutes.

The piece focuses on the fire station in Blandford, Nova Scotia, but a lot of the issues they face hold true for other departments across the country.

Listen to it here.

Harlan Ellison sums it up

Speaking of rants (see previous post), here is Harlan Ellison on the subject of paying writers. Note that he uses what my buddy Vern would call "some choice language" so this one may not be safe for work.

I suspect that pretty soon most every writer I know will have this posted. (Hat tip to writer Allison Finnamore, who turned me on to it).



On a related subject, in her most recent column, Heather Mallick notes that "Ironically, Viacom sued Google for $1 billion in lost online profits over pirated video, but tells writers that their work is worth nothing online and they don't deserve a royalty."

Top 25 documentaries

The International Documentary Association has published their list of the Top 25 documentaries of all time. I've only seen seven of the films (Hoop Dreams, Bowling for Columbine, Gimme Shelter, Super Size Me, Don't Look Back, Fahrenheit 9/11, and Woodstock) so I've got a ways to go.

I'm surprised to see Fahrenheit 9/11 on the list, because I thought it was a sloppy and sometimes incoherent piece of work. Powerful, yes, but powerful in the way Spielberg movies are powerful. You feel moved, until you start to feel icky for having been manipulated.

Some of the other documentaries on the list have been on my want-to-see list for far too long.

The Bodybuilder and I (again)

Congrats to director Bryan Friedman and everyone involved in making (and publicizing) The Bodybuilder and I. Top Canadian feature at Hot Docs. Nice work.

The Bodybuilder and I

Through the NFB, I've been involved in the launch of the feature documentary The Bodybuilder and I.

It's the story of 26-year-old Bryan Friedman, and his dad Bill -- a 59-year-old competitive bodybuilder taking his last shot at winning back the title he once held.

It's one hell of a film, and it premieres at the Hot Docs festival in Toronto this weekend, with two screenings. The world premiere is Friday, April 20, 9:30 PM at the Royal Cinema, with a follow-up on Sunday afternoon at 1:30, at the Bloor.

Here's the film's page in the Hot Docs catalogue. Once you're there, click on the right side of the page to buy tickets. (The Friday night screening is rush tickets only at this point.)

Race is a Four-Letter Word

Spend an hour in front of your TV tonight, and watch Race is a Four-Letter Word, a one-hour documentary produced by the NFB here in Halifax. It airs on CBC Newsworld's The Lens.

Director and writer Sobaz Benjamin, who I first met a few years back when we both worked as writers/story consultants on an ill-fated documentary, brings together a black man who was once obsessed with being whiter (himself), a white man who thinks of himself as black, and the incomparable Miss Canadiana.

If you miss it tonight, you can catch it again on Saturday.

The Halifax Daily News has a story on the film here.