America
India-born filmmaker to participate in Toronto film lab
Toronto, Aug 21
India-born Canadian filmmaker
Nisha Pahuja, known for her 2012 documentary "The World Before Her", is
excited to take part in the "fabulous" National Film Board of Canada
(NFB) and the Canadian Film Centre (CFC) Creative Doc Lab with her new
film on Indian masculinity.
The NFB and the CFC announced on
Thursday that four distinguished filmmakers including Pahuja have been
selected to participate in the NFB/CFC Creative Doc Lab, read
cfccreates.com.
The other filmmakers are Josephine Anderson, Noam Gonick, and Pablo Alvarez-Mesa.
The
Creative Doc Lab is a creative and marketplace catalyst focused on
cultivating creative risk-taking and helping to further establish
Canadians as world-class documentary storytellers.
Building on
the success of the first two documentary programmes presented by the CFC
and the NFB, the refreshed lab embraces the changes within the world of
feature documentaries, reaffirming the organisations’ approach and
commitment to the art of feature documentary storytelling.
“We
were overwhelmed with exceptionally strong candidates this year - a
testament to the growing doc talent in our country, which made the final
selection very difficult for the jury,†said Anita Lee, executive
producer, NFB and Creative Doc Lab Advisor.
“My esteemed
colleagues on the jury represented expertise in each key area of
filmmaking and industry. Final decisions were made weighing both talent
and the project’s potential to meet the aspirations of the lab.â€
The
four filmmakers have been selected to engage in an inspiring and
rigorous creative development process with their respective projects
over the course of the next eight months.
Pahuja's "Send Us Your
Brother" explores the complexity of being a man in India today;
struggling between the old and the new, tradition and modernity, India’s
sons are starting to question who and what they are.
"Ok so it's
now official! I've been selected to take part in the fabulous NFB/CFC
creative doc lab with my new film...about Indian masculinity," Pahuja
tweeted on Thursday.
Anderson's "The Third Movement" is a feature
documentary that follows world-renowned classical pianist Sara Davis
Buechner as she sets out to prove to the world that she is still worth
attention. Sara, born David, was 37 years old when she transitioned from
male to female. Within a year, Sara’s slate of more than 50 concert
bookings diminished to two. Now 55 and living in Canada, with a career
that has never quite reached its full potential, Sara is determined to
establish her artistic legacy.
Gonick's "Amber" is the story of a
complex double kidnapping that examines gender, race, consent and
culpability on the Canadian prairies.
Alvarez-Mesa's
"Chrononauts" is a feature-length creative documentary that observes the
every day of four living time travellers as they deal with the
challenges of being stuck in our shared present.
The lab
officially begins here in early September and will consist of group
sessions, peer-to-peer collaboration, and individual project mentorship
from some of Canada’s and the world’s top documentary filmmaking
professionals and industry leaders.