Our nation's public film and digital media producer/distributor, the National Film Board of Canada (NFB), has once again announced a full month's worth of new exclusive streaming releases on its website for October.
In addition to Halloween, there's a lot of culturally significant events going on over the next few weeks, including Women's History Month, Latin American Heritage Month and International Animation Day (October 28). NFB has all your bases covered, starting with she who must come first: women.
Renowned director Donald McWilliams's feature-length documentary, A Return to Memory, premiering on October 18, profiles women's vital but underrepresented role in creating Canadian cinema, establishing Canada's National Film Board during World War II. NFB has also put together a collection of 30-some films — including Courtney Montour's Mary Two-Axe Earley: I Am Indian Again (2021) and Karen Cho's Status Quo? The Unfinished Business of Feminism in Canada (2012) — highlighting how women and gender-diverse communities have shaped Canada's identity with the Representing Gender Equality and Diversity channel.
Similarly, the Latinx-Canadian Cinema channel traces the history of NFB films made in Latin America, or by Latin Americans, from the '70s until today, with can't-miss titles like Bianca Shonee Arroyo-Kreimes' My World, Your Melody (2024), Rosana Matecki's Saturday Night (2021) and Jorge Fajardo's Steel Blues (1976).
To mark International Animation Day on October 28, veteran actor Clare Coulter voices Marielle Dalpé's 2023 film Aphasia, immersing viewers into the world of Alzheimer's disease and being faced with losing language capabilities — while Ryo Orikasa's short, Miserable Miracle, brings the poems and drawings of Henri Michaux to life.
Finally, the moment you've been waiting for: the spooky stuff. The Halloween Movies - NFB channel has around 40 documentaries and animated films for you to get your seasonal dose of thrills and chills from the likes of Georges Hannan's Undertaker for Life!, Jennie Williams's Nalujuk Night, and Sylvie Trouvé and Dayle Hayward's Bone Mother.