Sundance Channel Picks Up NFB Films

NEW YORK, April 22: Sundance
Channel has acquired 11 films from the National Film Board of Canada (NFB),
including three feature documentaries and eight animated short films.

The feature documentaries
include The Wild Horse Redemption,
which is directed by Academy Award-winner John Zaritsky (The Fifth Estate:
Just Another Missing Kid) and
showcases the Wild Horse Inmate Program at a Colorado prison situated in the
Rocky Mountains, where inmates are coached on how to handle wild horses; and Triage:
Dr. James Orbinski’s Humanitarian Dilemma, which was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film
Festival and follows Canadian doctor James Orbinski, who served as
international president of Doctors Without Borders and is faced with struggling
humanitarian efforts on a return trip to Africa. Rounding out the feature
documentary acquisitions are Confessions of an Innocent Man. Narrated by Emmy Award-winning actor Martin
Sheen, this documentary details the story of British-Canadian businessman
William Sampson, who was imprisoned and tortured for more than two years in a
Saudi jail, forced to confess to engaging in terrorism and murder—crimes
he did not commit. Based on Sampson’s memoir chronicling the atrocities he
endured, the film was directed by Academy Award-nominee David Paperny (The
Broadcast Tapes of Dr. Peter).

The slate of acquired
animated shorts include the Oscar-nominated Madame Tutli-Putli, directed by Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski; Sleeping
Betty, directed by Claude
Cloutier; Engine 371, directed
by Kevin Langdale; Conte de Quartier, which received a Special Mention at the Cannes Film Festival and was
directed by Florence Miailhe; Flutter, directed by Howie Shia; Jeu, directed by Georges Schwizgebel; Tower Bawher, directed by Theodore Ushev; and Tragic Story
With a Happy Ending, directed by
Regina Pessoa.

—By Irene Lew