Latest posts from National Screen Institute - Canada (NSI)

Alex Lazarowich wins $50K Cinereach producer award

Posted: 09 Jun 2019 11:36 AM PDT

Cinereach recently announced the four recipients of their $50K 2019 independent producers award. Included in their selections is Alex Lazarowich (NSI IndigiDocs).

Cinereach recognized Alex and three other producers for their vision and integrity, contributing to the film community as mentors and leaders, and enriching culture through their films.

As part of her slate of accomplishments, Alex contributed to Flaherty Film Seminar’s decision to stop using their Nanook of the North logo in 2018 and to include more Indigenous-made films in their festival.

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A False Sense of Security

Posted: 06 Jun 2019 03:12 PM PDT

Two women on opposing sides of the security sign-in desk, meet.

Creative team

Writer: Helen Juvonen
Director: Grace Lynn Kung
Producer: Catherine Tait

Filmmaker’s statement

A few years ago, I discovered Yuja Wang. Born in 1987, Yuja is a classical pianist who was born in Beijing, moved to Canada, graduated from the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia (whose admissions rate is 3.2%) and became an international sensation. The first time I watched her play I was captured. She had such an intimate relationship with her piano that I felt I was intruding – Steinway interruptus.

Google Yuja’s name and you will find as many articles about her hemline as her virtuosic technique. A reviewer for New Criterion declared of her Hollywood Bowl performance: “A Times Square hooker, in the old days, would have said, ‘For heaven’s sake, put on some clothes!’” Yuja is a new force pushing against a culture steeped in tradition, male dominated and heavy with heritage – they want to talk about her clothes, she wants to talk about Rachmaninoff.

This clash of past versus present, expression versus expectation is where the characters of this film, Mona and Debra, meet. And in their own ways, both women are like Yuja. While outwardly they seem to represent opposite sides of the argument, they are both caught within their respective roles in society in how they want to express themselves and their expectations of one another.

About Grace Lynn Kung

Grace Lynn Kung is a CSA- and ACTRA Award-nominated actor and director. She has studied naturopathic medicine in the UK and holds two certificates of distinction in speech and drama from Trinity College London.

A False Sense of Security is her first film (not shot with stuffed animals on her Grandma’s camcorder).

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Giant Child

Posted: 06 Jun 2019 03:06 PM PDT

A deceased child refuses the call into the afterlife in hopes of comforting her grieving mother.

As her mother’s grief spirals, the child continues to remain unnoticed and her desperation causes her to grow and grow, until she can no longer be ignored.

Creative team

Director: Camila De Guzman

About Camila De Guzman

Camila De Guzman was born in the Philippines and moved to Canada when she was five.

Since then she has dedicated her time to art and animation, and has recently graduated from Seneca College’s animation program. She hopes to never stop growing in art and in life, so that one day she will be able to properly express herself.

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Unworldly

Posted: 06 Jun 2019 03:02 PM PDT

Unworldly – adj; not seeming to belong to this planet; strange.

Creative team

Writers/directors/producers: Sarah El Bakkouri, Cross Li

About Sarah El Bakkouri

Sarah El Bakkouri is a Moroccan Canadian filmmaker based in Vancouver. Her shorts have screened in film festivals around the world.

She is currently working on a few projects exploring immigration and women’s issues through hybrids of experimental and narrative approaches.

About Cross Li

Cross Li is a Chinese Canadian independent filmmaker who is completing their BFA in film production at Simon Fraser University. They aspire to make more films exploring science fiction, queer identity and found footage in their future works. They are currently experimenting with film and video as art objects.

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