Streaming online free of charge on NFB.ca and YouTube as of July 13: the films from the fourth edition of the 5 Shorts Project (Paraloeil/NFB). Dive into the sounds and sights of the Bas-Saint-Laurent.

Launched at the NFB by the French Program’s Documentary Studio, the 5 Shorts Project visits Quebec’s regions to shine a spotlight on their filmmaking talents. (Pexels file photo)

Get your headphones on! Starting July 13, enjoy a full sensory immersion in the Bas-Saint-Laurent with the world premiere of the 5 Shorts Project, whose fourth edition will stream online free of charge on NFB.ca and YouTube, wherever you are. The NFB has teamed up with Paralœil to produce this year’s series, whose four creative documentaries—Attuned by Steve Verreault and Sébastien Dave Tremblay, Mounds by Nicolas Paquet and Tom Jacques, It’ll Be Nice Out Tomorrow by Guillaume Lévesque and Antoine Létourneau-Berger, and Night Fair by Cynthia Naggar and Gueze—point up the power of audio and the present moment. Each employs a distinct aesthetic approach as they explore the influence of nature, machinery, the weather and dreams on everyday life.

Launched at the NFB by the French Program’s Documentary Studio, the 5 Shorts Project visits Quebec’s regions to shine a spotlight on their filmmaking talents. After Quebec City, Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean and Abitibi-Témiscamingue, the program now turns its attention to the Bas-Saint-Laurent, where the NFB worked with the Rimouski-based production centre Paraloeil.

Quick facts

• Starting July 13—a date marking their world premiere—the films from the 5 Shorts Project in the Bas-Saint-Laurent (Paraloeil/NFB) can be streamed free of charge from anywhere in the world on NFB.ca and YouTube.
• This is the fourth edition of the 5 Shorts Project, an NFB initiative that showcases the talents of filmmakers from Quebec’s regions.
• Each of the films (which run between four and six minutes) was created by a Bas-Saint-Laurent duo consisting of one filmmaker and one sound artist. The films are available in binaural audio, which is a 360˚ spatial soundscape optimized for headphones.
• The 5 Shorts Project in the Bas-Saint-Laurent is produced by Nathalie Cloutier (NFB) and Valérie Mongrain (Paraloeil):
  • Attuned by Steve Verreault and Sébastien Dave Tremblay
    A biologist and naturalist photographer trains his lens on the Matane area in this meditative ode to the benefits of nature.
  • Mounds by Nicolas Paquet and Tom Jacques
    A playful documentary on the monumental dance of a peat vacuum harvester, an impressive industrial machine invented in Rivière-du-Loup.
  • It’ll Be Nice Out Tomorrow by Guillaume Lévesque and Antoine Létourneau-Berger
    Celebrating the poetry of human speech as it presents Rimouski from a rare angle, this film explores how the weather permeates the collective and universal imagination.
  • Night Fair by Cynthia Naggar and Gueze
    A conceptual film that, in a striking marriage of art and science, translates the brain-wave activity of a night’s sleep into sound and image.