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We turn to Encore+ (free subscription) in part three of our series about online video platforms featuring projects by NSI alumni.

• Part one looked at alumni projects at NFB.ca
• Part two looked at alumni projects on CBC Gem

Can you tell we’re proud NSI parents? Pass the nachos – there’s something for everyone!

TV series

Edgemont | seasons 1-5 | 2000 | Teens

Director E. Jane Thompson (NSI Features First)

The kids of Edgemont are faced with issues that happen in their lives, whether the issues are racism, homosexuality or discrimination.

Incredible Story Studio | season 2 | 1998 | Kids

Creator/director/writer/producer Robert de Lint, creator/writer/producer Virginia Thompson (both NSI Features First)

Join the Studio Boss as she tracks down the best stories from across Canada and around the world. Written by kids, about kids, for kids – you’ll get to meet the writers and see their stories brought to life. From the scary to the sad, the wacky to the weird, it’s all at the Incredible Story Studio. – JACOBS, ROLE THE FILM!

Moose TV | season 1 | 2007 | Comedy

Executive producer Ernest Webb (Aboriginal Cultural Trade Initiative), executive producer Catherine Bainbridge (NSI Global Marketing), producer Christina Fon (NSI Global Marketing)

After spending the last decade in Toronto, George Keeshig returns to the northern Quebec town of Moose to manage the local community TV station. (From Encore+)

This is Wonderland | seasons 1 & 2 | 2004 | Comedy

Director Keith Behrman (NSI Features First, NSI Drama Prize), writer Joseph Kay (NSI Totally Television)

Alice De Raey is a newly minted attorney who joins the chaotic world of criminal justice in Toronto. She’s exposed to the seamier side of life, the backroom deals that make the system work accompanied by the usual eccentric characters.

Short films

Choke | 2010 | 6 mins | Animation

Writer/director Michelle Latimer (NSI Drama Prize)

When Jimmy leaves his reservation for the lures of city life, he finds himself confronted with a future he could never have imagined. Inspired by the contemporary art of First Nation’s youth, Choke employs stop-motion animation to explore the themes of urban isolation and the search for identity within modern society.

Do Wok a Do | 2000 | 15 mins | Family

Producer Sandi Somers (NSI Features First)

Growing up in a small town, young Joanne must come to terms with the slow disintegration of her family … struggling to understand, she calls upon the spirit of her grandfather to guide her.

Leaks | 2014 | 2:42 mins | Drama

Director Cara Mumford (NSI IndigiDocs, Featuring Aboriginal Stories Program)

Music by Tara Williamson, spoken word by Leanne Simpson and visuals of Leanne and her daughter living on the land of the Michi Saagiig Nishnaabeg. The film is about the Anishinaabeg connection to the land and passing that knowledge to the next generations. It’s about teaching our children to be proud of who they are no matter what the outside world does to try to tear them down.

Prayer for a Good Day | 2004 | 12 mins | Drama

Writer/director/producer Zoe Leigh Hopkins (Featuring Aboriginal Stories Program)

Determined to help her depressed father, a young girl finds the key to his happiness: his very own junkyard.

Savage | 2009 | 6 mins | Drama

Writer/director Lisa Jackson (Featuring Aboriginal Stories Program)

On a summer day in the 1950s, a native Cree girl watches the countryside go by from the backseat of a car. A woman at her kitchen table sings a lullaby in her Cree language. When the girl arrives at her destination, she undergoes a transformation that will turn the woman’s gentle voice into a howl of anger and pain.

Wapawekka | 2010 | 17 mins | Drama

Writer/director/producer Danis Goulet, producer Christine Kleckner (both NSI Drama Prize)

A final visit to their isolated cabin in northern Canada reveals the inter-generational rift between Josh and his traditional Cree father.

Documentaries

By Woman’s Hand | 1994 | 59 mins 

Producer Merit Jensen-Carr (NSI Global Marketing)

In 1920, a group of young Montreal women artists formed the nucleus of what would later become known as the Beaver Hall Hill Group. Together, they created an artistic environment of mutual support that lasted for more than three decades. By Woman’s Hand explores this unique group through the eyes of Prudence Heward, Sarah Robertson and Anne Savage, its three most prominent members. (From nfb.ca)

One More River: The Deal That Split the Cree | 2004 | 91 mins 

Writer/director Tracey Deer (NSI Storytellers, Featuring Aboriginal Stories Program), writer/producer Ernest Webb (Aboriginal Cultural Trade Initiative), producers Catherine Bainbridge, Christina Fon (both NSI Global Marketing)

Directors bring us into the north of Quebec and show us the decision process of a Cree community about whether signing a deal with the Prime Minister Bernard Landry for the construction of a hydroelectric project on Cree territory in exchange of 3,5 billions of dollars.

Features

Martha, Ruth & Edie | 1988 | 73 mins | Comedy

Director Norma Bailey (NSI Totally Television)

Two women attending a women’s seminar on personal development walk out in acute embarrassment during the introduction. They meet up with a woman who arrived too late to be admitted. Thrown together by chance, they discuss their emotional lives in intimate detail.

The Embargo Project | 2015 | 73 mins | Drama

Writer/director Zoe Hopkins, writer/director Lisa Jackson (both Featuring Aboriginal Stories Program), executive producer Danis Goulet (NSI Drama Prize)

Five Indigenous women filmmakers from across Canada challenge one another to make a film under a set of restrictions tailored to each filmmaker. Quebec, Ontario, British Columbia, Nunavut/ Fiction, Documentary/ French, English, Mohawk, Sami, Inuktitut

The Wild Hunt | 2009 | 96 mins | Drama

Writer/executive producer Mark A. Krupa (NSI Totally Television)

A medieval reenactment game turns into a Shakespearean tragedy when a non-player crashes the event to win back his girlfriend.

Alumni: if you have other films on Encore+ that are free to watch, we’d love to hear about it in the comments below.

Unless noted, synopses are from IMDb.com

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