Four producer-director teams in the inaugural NSI Aboriginal Documentary Course are heading to the Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival, which kicks off this Thursday.

Producer Gabriel Constant (Opaskwayak Cree Nation) and director Neil Bignell (MB); Producer Crystal Greene and Cameron Courchene (Winnipeg); Producer Damien Ferland and director Rhayne Vermette (Winnipeg); and producer Christopher Read and director Sam Vint (Winnipeg) are the four teams chosen for the next phase of the NSI program. They will travel to the Toronto festival with program advisor Jeff Newman and program co-manager Elise Swerhone.

The NSI course students will participate in the festival’s doc accelerator program. They will also attend screenings and have the opportunity to network with established and emerging filmmakers.

“After the intense bootcamp in January and the research of t heir projects this spring, attending the festival will inspire the teams as they get ready to shoot their films later this year,” said NSI CEO John Gill in a statement.

The NSI Aboriginal Documentary program, which launched in January as a pilot program, acts as a launch pad for producer-director teams to produce a short documentary film. Teams receive a cash award of up to $16,000 to put towards production costs. The teams are also paired with an industry mentor who helps with production of the film project, which is will then be broadcast on MTS TV Stories From Home and APTN.