National Film Board of Canada Awards Two Filmmakers with Feature Documentary Fund

The National Film Board of Canada announced its two winners for the Feature Documentary Fund, which awards filmmakers $800,000 towards the production of their documentary. This year's chosen projects were "Basement Tapes," directed by Brett Gaylor, and "Love at the Starlite Motel," by Alison Rose. "Basement Tapes" explores the corporate control of music in the record industry and then advocates for a free public domain where people can create and share music online without getting stopped by copyright laws. The other winning documentary, "Love at the Starlite Motel," comments on Latin American attitudes towards love and sex. The film takes a close look inside the Starlite Motel in Miami, one of the busiest motels in the city, to understand expressions of sex and infidelity within the Cuban and Latin American cultures. The Feature Documentary Fund started last summer with a call for projects that were not only innovative, but also appealed to an international audience. The winners were chosen from among 80 submissions. For more information, visit the NFB Web site. [Tamara Schweitzer]