In recent years, a steady flow of smaller budget, made-for-television documentaries has led to some criticism that Canada’s national film board, faced with tightened purse strings, had been losing sight of its original cinematic goals, opting instead for more commercial broadcast fare.

However, the world premiere of David Lynch’s The Herd is a benchmark of sorts for the federally funded production house. Many are heralding the film as the nfb’s return to its roots in cinematic filmmaking.

‘Despite the fact that we are producing so much on video these days, the nfb is still a film production organization,’ says producer Peter Starr, ‘so it is really important that we continue to produce festival-quality films.’

The Herd, a historical feature from the director of Project Grizzly, retraces the steps of a small team of Inuit and Sami herders who set out from Alaska on the world’s greatest reindeer drive in December 1929.

Dubbed by nfb insiders as their ‘Titanic,’ the $850,000 film, produced entirely in-house at the film board, was researched for a year and a half and shot by a small documentary crew as opposed to a full feature film team.

All domestic and international theatrical and broadcasting rights are wide open, so Starr is aiming to close some deals at tiff, as well as grab the attention of other festival programmers to ensure a long festival life for the film and garner international press.

Although budget constraints limit the number of large-scale theatrical projects the nfb can become involved in, Starr says when a great project with cinematic potential is pitched, the board will dig deep into its pockets.

The nfb’s English-language unit is allocated $11.2 million for the ’98/99 fiscal, with an additional $1.4 million earmarked for the Aboriginal filmmaking program. The French-language documentary budget is $8.2 million. The nfb also produces animation, children’s and interactive projects, with the English-language stream budgeted at $5.3 million for the ’98/99 fiscal and the French-language counterpart at $2.1 million.

Other TIFF titles

In the roles of producer, coproducer or minority stakeholder, the National Film Board is involved in five films screening at the 1998 Toronto International Film Festival.

While The Herd points to the future role of the nfb, Jacques Leduc’s L’Age de braise represents its past. It is one of the last dramatic features to come out of the nfb pipeline. In 1996, the film board made the decision to focus entirely on non-fiction and documentaries.

L’Age de braise, screening in Perspective Canada, is a $2.4-million coproduction between the nfb, Les Productions du Lundi Matin of Montreal and Sunday Films in France. The project has been in development since 1986 when the nfb took a 22% stake in the film.

It is the story of a dying elderly woman (played by French actress Annie Girardot) reflecting back on a life ruled by passion and impulse and work with humanitarian organizations.

The producers are Luc Vandal (Lundi Matin), Nicole Lamothe (nfb), Isabelle Parion and Raymond Parizer (Sunday). France Film is the Canadian and international distributor.

Also in the nfb offerings at tiff are Rain, Drizzle, and Fog, a 50-minute film directed by Rosemary House and produced by Kent Martin out of the nfb’s Halifax studio.

The film features well-known Canadian entertainers who grew up in St. John’s, Nfld., such as Mary Walsh (This Hour Has 22 Minutes), Andy Jones (codco), musician Anita Best, actor Bryan Hennessey (Gullages) and writer Des Walsh (The Boys of St. Vincent). Each offers a unique perspective on the city they grew up in and provides a portrait of the culture, history and social atmosphere of their home town.

All rights are available on the $290,000 Super 16 program, although Martin says the cbc has expressed interest in taking a licence.

The art deco film Les Dames du 9e is a portrait of a legendary dining room inspired by the world’s great ocean liners of the past, which today stands ‘frozen in time’ at the Eaton store in Montreal. Catherine Martin directs this 51-minute coproduction from Claude Cartier of Montreal’s Galafilm and Lamothe at the nfb. rdi has bought the program.

The film board is also a partner in Vancouver filmmaker Nettie Wild’s A Place Called Chiapas, exploring the Mexico revolution led by Zapatista National Liberation Army rebels (see sidebar, this page).

NFB development slate

Upcoming feature-length fare on the nfb slate includes the docudrama Entries, based on the diaries of Charles Ritchie, a Canadian diplomat who grew up in Nova Scotia, studied at Oxford, and was stationed in London and Washington during wwii.

The project is being developed by John Walker, director of Champagne Safari, and Ontario nfb producer Silva Basmajian. Production is scheduled to begin this fall.

Five years in the making, the Nitinaht Chronicles is a two-and-a-half-hour film exploring the healing process of a Vancouver Island aboriginal community dealing with the aftereffects of a long history of sexual abuse. The $750,000 project is directed by Maurice Bulian and produced out of the Montreal nfb studio. Vision has licensed the project and is slotting it as three one hours.

Another tale of intrigue, this time a Cold War mystery, is in the works with doc maker John Kramer and Ontario nfb producer Gerry Flahive. It’s the story of Herbert Norman, the Canadian ambassador to Egypt who jumped to his death in 1957 after having been accused of being a Communist spy by the u.s. Senate Subcommittee.

The feature-length, $600,000 film is being shot in Ottawa, Toronto, Boston, Washington, London, Japan, and Egypt for delivery in May.

The Gypsies of Svinia, a 95-minute portrayal of impoverished Gypsies in Eastern Slovakia and a Canadian anthropologist’s determination to help them rebuild their community, is directed by John Paskievich and produced by Joe MacDonald.

In Desperately Seeking Helen, director Eisha Marjara seeks out the Indian film idol Helen and in doing so comes to terms with her own past, the world of Indian cinema and Western tv culture.

Also on Starr’s slate is Smoke and Mirrors. The nfb has been granted access to follow the inside story of 22-year-old singer/songwriter Roberta Michele, who has been signed by Sony Music Canada. Over the next 12 months, the cameras will chronicle how Sony develops and launches her career.

Su Rynard is directing the project, which begins shooting the end of September. The one-hour film has a $300,000 budget and all rights are available.

A coproduction between Halifax-based Victory Motion Pictures and the nfb, Camp X looks at a secret wwii facility located on farmland near Toronto where agents were trained, explosive devices tested, documents forged, identities concocted and dummy buildings constructed to practice attacks on Nazi strongholds.

Every Allied secret agent – British, Canadian, American and recruits from the European Resistance movements – went through this unique Canadian spy school, including James Bond creator Ian Fleming.

History Television has prebought the project, still in development.

The nfb has a 38% stake in the $400,000 Loyalties, another partnership with Victory, whose Lesley Ann Patten is producing with the nfb’s Martin. It is the story of two women in Halifax who discover their families were connected in the past, one as slave owner and the other as slave. Baton/ctv has licensed the project.

A $400,000 one-hour film delving into the subject of rats is being coproduced by the nfb’s Starr and Jacques Hollender of Nemesis Productions, with a presale to tvontario.

The camera takes the point of view of the vermin themselves and follows them through their labyrinthine world of the city sewer system. Production is currently underway, with shoots scheduled for New York, Toronto, Detroit and Alberta.

The Kitchen Goddess, a one-hour documentary exploring the long-held Maritime tradition of the neighborhood fortune teller or ‘village wise woman’ is currently in post-production. Donna Davies directed the film in which she incorporates her personal experiences growing up surrounded by tales of haunted houses and phantoms. All rights are available on the program.

The lighter side of the NFB

Some quirky, lighter fare on the nfb sked includes The Perfect Hero, another project produced by Martin, which delves into the world of romance fiction and the millions of women worldwide who read Harlequin Romances and other novels in the genre. The film includes comments from the readers, the writers, the publishers and the male models who pose for the book covers, all of whom meet up for a romance novel conference on a Caribbean cruise ship.

The $380,000 project is currently in post and has been sold to Baton/ctv.

The Bed, directed by Jeff McKay (Fat Chance) and produced by Martin, is a $420,000 one-hour looking at the impact of the bed in our lives, a place where, according to researchers on the subject, we spend almost one-third of our time on Earth. The film shows how the bed has become an essential part of human culture but at the same time is so commonplace we rarely think about it.

The doc was shot across Canada and the u.s. and is now being edited. zdf/Arte has expressed interest.

Jeannette Loakman’s Slippery Blisses offers some insight into the history, science, social and cultural implications of kissing. The project is in development at the nfb’s Ontario studio and will be produced by Basmajian.

Stiletto, a $400,000 history of women’s high heals, is being directed by Louise Lerous and produced out of Montreal. All rights are available.

Animation and kids’ fare

Svend-Erik Eriksen is executive producer of the Vancouver Animation, Children, Interactive program. His upcoming projects include the 10-minute animated film Strange Invaders with director Cordell Barker, whose previous animated film The Cat Came Back was nominated for an Academy Award.

Barker’s latest project is being produced in Winnipeg for $320,000 using cel animation. It is a humorous tale of a childless couple who find a baby in their home. As they raise the child it becomes apparent to everyone, except the couple, that the kid is actually an alien.

Production will wrap in late spring of next year, and Eriksen says beyond a festival play, he is discussing the possibility of Famous Players picking it up to screen before features. aci also compiles its animated shorts into animation programs which are sold to broadcasters worldwide and to the public.

Production is underway in Edmonton on Beth Portman’s Fair Phyllis, a 10-minute cartoon set in the 1700s about a shepherdess balancing the demands of her flock of lambs with a lover who doesn’t understand her busy life. The $320,000 project is being produced using computer-generated images to create a sketch-style, pencil-and-crayon look.