Toronto-based Métis filmmaker and media artist Terril Calder’s National Film Board of Canada (NFB) installation Meneath: The Mirrors of Ethics will make its world premiere at the Tribeca Festival’s “Tribeca Immersive” showcase in June.

Adapted from Calder’s 2021 NFB stop-motion animated short Meneath: The Hidden Island of Ethics, the stop-motion installation (pictured) features the voice of actor-filmmaker Gail Maurice (Rosie, Cardinal) and was edited by the late filmmaker Jeff Barnaby (Rhymes for Young Ghouls, Blood Quantum).

The project uses interfering screens in an object reminiscent of a puppet theatre to tell the story of a Métis baby girl who “contemplates her path to hell,” according to a news release. The installation’s themes include “Indigenous values and illuminates the bias of our colonial systems.” The “Tribeca Immersive” showcase runs June 7 to 18 in New York.

ReelAbilities fest picks pitch participants

The ReelAbilities Film Festival Toronto (RAFFTO) has chosen five participants for its first-ever Short Film Pitch Competition.

Professional photographer and filmmaker Alexandra Hickox, storyteller Kai Little-White, artist and filmmaker M.C Cruz Issaoui, filmmaker and writer Nika, and producer-director-performer Shannon Tosic-McNally are receiving a private coaching session from pitch coach Jan Miller to participate in a live, virtual pitch on May 19.

The competition offers a chance to win $5,000 in cash, plus prizes and support from William F. White International and Grande Camera Toronto. It will unfold virtually to a jury of four, and be open to the public, according to a news release. The winner will be announced on the last day of the 8th annual RAFFTO, which runs May 11 to May 19.

Andrew Moodie aims to bring stage play to screen

A filmed production of actor, playwright and filmmaker Andrew Moodie’s play Riot is seeking digital distribution. The production is written and directed by Moodie, based on his original 1995 play about the Toronto Yonge Street Riot on May 4, 1992, which sprang from protest about the acquittal of officers in the Los Angeles beating of motorist Rodney King. 

Riot is produced by Moodie under his banner Renaissance Canadian Theatre Company, as well as Brenda Kamino, Christine Cortes and Peter Wood. It was filmed last year at Toronto’s Aki Studio with support of grants from the Canada Council for the Arts, the Toronto Arts Council and the Ontario Arts Council. Cast members include Andrea Carter, Mazin Elsadig, Tarique Lewis, Derick Agyemang, Hillary Warden and David Wilson.

Producers tell Playback Daily the production was originally meant to be a restaging of the play, but when the Omicron wave of the COVID-19 pandemic hit, they taped a film version instead. The film is currently in post-production, and producers are in talks with “several streamers” regarding distribution. 

Villeneuve hits the gas pedal

Production is revving up on car racing drama Villeneuve, which will be directed by Daniel Roby, who also wrote the biographical feature alongside Guillaume Lonergan. Pre-production will start “very soon,” with filming set to begin in winter 2023/2024 on the film, according to a news release.

Villeneuve is being produced by Christal Films Productions. Christian Larouche is the producer and Les Films Opale is attached as distributor on the story of a Quebec car racer in the 1970s.

The film received funding from the Société de développement des entreprises culturelles (SODEC) and Telefilm Canada, as well as the support of Bell Media/Crave. Stars include Rémi Goulet as Canadian F1 racing driver Gilles Villeneuve and Rosalie Bonenfant as his spouse, Joann Villeneuve.

IMPACT, Radio-Canada and University of Montreal launch TV internship

Quebec-based non-profit organization the Independent Media Producers Association of Creative Talent (IMPACT) has named Clélia Ngando-Moukouelle as the first recipient of a paid internship program established with the University of Montreal and Radio-Canada.

The program, titled Empowering Black and Racialized Women in the Entertainment Industry-Reach and Teach Paid Internship, is designed to help Black and racialized women based in Quebec pursue a career in television. Moukouelle, a student at the University of Montreal, will receive hands-on experience in the television department at Radio-Canada. The program includes a stipend, financially supported by Radio-Canada and the University of Montreal.

IMPACT was founded in 2020 as a non-profit organization with the aim to help reduce barriers for Black and racialized individuals in the Canadian screen sector.

VFS launches new scholarship

The Vancouver Film School (VFS) has launched a new scholarship fund for students to train in areas including film, animation, and design in the city. The Launch Scholarship is valued at up to $158,000 and is now open for applications with a deadline of May 31, according to a news release.

It will offer a full-tuition scholarship to one applicant from each of VFS’s three core schools: School of Animation, School of Film & Television, and School of Games & Creative Design. The scholarships are valid for the remaining 2023 start dates at VFS, and the winners will enroll in their program of choice.

Canadian Indigenous journalist wins Pulitzer and Peabody

Canadian Indigenous investigative journalist Connie Walker’s podcast Stolen: Surviving St. Michael’s received back-to-back honours, winning the 2023 Pulitzer Prize in Audio Reporting on Monday (May 8) and, a day later, the Peabody Award.

The Gimlet Media podcast is an investigation into the abuse Walker’s father and hundreds of other Indigenous children faced at a residential school in in Duck Lake, Sask.

The Pulitzer award went to the “staff of Gimlet Media, notably Connie Walker, whose investigation into her father’s troubled past revealed a larger story of abuse of hundreds of Indigenous children at an Indian residential school in Canada, including other members of Walker’s extended family,” the citation read.

Walker, who is from Okanese First Nation in Saskatchewan, is the host and managing editor of Stolen at New York-based Gimlet Media, the narrative podcast company owned by Spotify. She was a journalist with the CBC for 20 years and hosted its podcast Missing & Murdered: Finding Cleo.

With files from Kelly Townsend and Taimur Sikander Mirza

Photo courtesy of the National Film Board of Canada