NFB Film Premieres Set for Hot Docs

TORONTO: The National Film Board of Canada (NFB) has a number of new films set to air at this year’s Hot Docs, taking place April 28 to May 8 in Toronto.

Six films from the NFB have been selected for the event, including world premieres for The Chocolate Farmer, a film from Rohan Fernando that captures a year in the life of the Pop family, cacao farmers in an unspoiled corner of southern Belize, and St-Henri, the 26th of August, from director Shannon Walsh about a day in the life of the eccentric Montreal neighborhood of Saint-Henri. Also to be featured are the North American premieres of The Future Is Now!, which is Gary Burns and Jim Brown’s follow up to Radiant City, and Wiebo’s War, filmmaker David York’s directorial debut, with a story of a Christian community at war with the oil and gas industry. Mighty Jerome, from filmmaker Charles Officer about the rise, fall and redemption of track-and-field star Harry Jerome, makes its Ontario premiere. Stéphanie Lanthier’s The Lumberfros, which documents the experiences of brush clearers in Quebec’s boreal forest, makes its Toronto premiere.

The NFB and Hot Docs will present an Outstanding Achievement Award Retrospective to NFB filmmaker and direct cinema pioneer Terence Macartney-Filgate. The NFB will also be partnering with Hot Docs on a Focus On screening series, honoring the work of Toronto documentarian Alan Zweig.