The National Film Board, in partnership with Toronto home video distributor Koch Vision, is releasing a seven-disc boxed set dedicated to the late Norman McLaren on Sept. 5, in time for the influential animator’s touring retrospective to screen at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Titled Norman McLaren: The Master’s Edition, the 15-hour set features McLaren’s complete works with the National Film Board, including his Academy Award-winning short Neighbours, Pas de deux, Hen Hop and many others. The set – which took four years to compile and remaster – comes with an 88-page bilingual booklet, and special features including 15 documentaries on McLaren, interviews, and early film tests and unfinished works by the filmmaker.

NFB commissioner Jacques Bensimon says he is pleased with the way the set presents McLaren’s film work and innovations.

‘McLaren found the laboratory component of the NFB allowed him to be stimulated, but at the same time put his most original ideas on film,’ says Bensimon. ‘I think we have set the bar high in Canada with this box set, by saying this is what a great filmmaker should get as treatment when you are trying to capture their contribution to filmmaking.’

According to the NFB, the set will be promoted heavily at Canadian festivals featuring the condensed McLaren theatrical retrospective, including the Atlantic Film Festival, Vancouver International Film Festival and the Ottawa International Animation Festival. The retrospective will screen at TIFF beginning Sept. 8.

VSC hits the road

Toronto’s Video Services Corporation will release Bruce McDonald’s feature Highway 61 and CBC comedy series Twitch City on Sept. 19. It is the first time for both on DVD.

Although VSC president Jonathan Gross would not provide preorder numbers for either title, he says he hopes to move between 5,000 and 10,000 units of Highway through retailers including HMV, Blockbuster, Best Buy and Future Shop. VSC has already released the other films in McDonald’s ‘road trilogy’ – Roadkill and Hard Core Logo.

‘Of all the Bruce McDonald releases we’ve had, this is the best resurrection,’ says Gross, who adds a boxed set of the trilogy should become available next year through VSC.

The restored widescreen version of Highway 61 features a commentary track by star and co-writer Don McKellar and journalist Geoff Pevere. Gross says the release will be backed by a strong TV ad campaign, retrospective screenings in Toronto, and some in-store appearances by McKellar, who also starred in and wrote Twitch City.

The VSC Twitch City release will feature the complete series – two seasons on two DVDs. The only special feature is a commentary track from McKellar.

‘I wish we could have done it earlier… but there hasn’t been the same market for television series [on DVD],’ says producer Susan Cavan of Toronto’s Accent Entertainment. ‘We have such a hardcore audience, I think it’ll be a collector’s item.’

Also…

* Alliance Atlantis’ Motion Picture Distribution shipped approximately 200,000 units of the Don Carmody-produced Silent Hill in Canada on Aug. 22. An AA rep says a BluRay edition of the video game adaptation will be released in time for the holidays.

* Toronto’s Mongrel Media will add eight new documentary titles to its Festival Collection – including the coffee exposé Black Gold and controversial Iraq war doc The War Tapes – available at Blockbuster Video stores in Canada on Sept. 12.

* Capri Films released Aaron Woodley’s 2003 feature debut Rhinoceros Eyes on Aug. 16. The title features two commentary tracks and Woodley’s animated short Downpour.