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.
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"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."
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.