Press Releases
National Film Board of Canada options Margaret Atwood's critically acclaimed book, Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth
2009/04/27
Toronto (April 27, 2009) – The National Film Board of Canada is pleased to announce that it has optioned the film rights to the non-fiction book Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth by the incomparable poet, novelist and essayist Margaret Atwood. To translate Atwood's exploration of debt to film, NFB producer Ravida Din sought out award-winning filmmaker Jennifer Baichwal to direct.
“This is a brilliant book on a timely subject by one of the most accomplished writers in the world. It made complete sense to me that the NFB should produce this documentary,” commented NFB producer Ravida Din. “I am always thinking about the NFB's unique and integral role in culture, in artistic excellence and in producing thought-provoking social documentaries. Jennifer will bring her usual intensity and very clever approach to this subject. A collaboration with Margaret Atwood felt as obvious as a collaboration with Jennifer.”
“The writing in Payback is so rich and acute that the ideas literally jumped off the page when I read it. It was brimming with cinematic possibilities,” added Jennifer Baichwal. “I can't say what an honour it is to be working with Margaret and what a pleasure to be working with Ravida and the NFB, perhaps the most vital bastion of support for feature documentaries in Canada.”
Margaret Atwood said, “The documentary will have many wonderful visual elements that will enlarge the understanding of the story. I'm thrilled to be working with Jennifer and Ravida on this project. I am confident that they will do an excellent job.”
Margaret Atwood's Payback is not a book about practical debt management or high finance, although it does touch upon these subjects. Rather, it is an investigation into the idea of debt as an ancient and central motif in religion, literature and the structure of human societies. By investigating how debt has informed our thinking from preliterate times to the present day through the stories we tell each other, through our concepts of “balance,” “revenge,” and “sin,” and in the way we form our social relationships, Atwood shows that the idea of what we owe one another - in other words, “debt” - is built into the human imagination and is one of its most dynamic metaphors. Payback is a finalist for the 2009 National Business Book Award, a selected title of the 2008 Globe and Mail Top 100 Book of the Year and has been awarded Silver in the 2008 Axiom Business Book Awards - Business Ethics. Payback was released in October 2008 by House of Anansi Press anansi.ca.
Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth will be produced by Ravida Din.
This is Atwood's first collaboration with the NFB. In 1984, the NFB documented the life of one of Canada's most elusive literary figures in Margaret Atwood: Once in August (1984). This film has been added today to the NFB's online Screening Room at NFB.ca. Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth is Baichwal's second project with the NFB. Her first NFB film was Manufactured Landscapes (2006), which she directed and produced along with Nick de Pencier, Daniel Iron, Peter Starr (NFB) and Gerry Flahive (NFB).
About the Producer
Ravida Din has an uncompromising commitment to social justice and feminism. It is integral to her work and a strong guiding principle towards bringing an insightful and engaging analysis to social documentary film. In her position as the NFB's Quebec Executive Producer, her mandate is to envision and manage a varied program of theatrical and television documentaries, community-based media and alternative drama. Recent credits include: Up the Yangtze (Genie Award for Best Documentary 2009, Sundance 2008), Baghdad Twist (TIFF 2008), Nollywood Babylon (Sundance 2009) and Roadsworth: Crossing the Line (Hot Docs 2009).
About the Filmmaker
Jennifer Baichwal has been directing and producing documentaries for 15 years. Her films have played all over the world and won awards nationally and internationally. Her last feature, Manufactured Landscapes, about the work of artist Edward Burtynsky, won Best Canadian Feature Film at TIFF 2006 and was released in 12 countries. Act of God, a documentary about the metaphysical effects of being struck by lightning, is opening the Hot Docs Film Festival 2009 and will be released by Mongrel Media in Canada on May 1, 2009. It was commissioned by Documentary, Channel 4 and Arte France.
About the Author
Margaret Atwood is one of the world's preeminent writers – winner of the Booker Prize, the Scotiabank Giller Prize and the Governor General's Literary Award, among many other honours. She is the bestselling author of more than thirty-five books of poetry, fiction and nonfiction, including The Handmaid's Tale, Alias Grace, The Blind Assassin and Oryx and Crake. She lives in Toronto and on Pelee Island in Lake Erie. She and her spouse, writer Graeme Gibson, are the Joint Honourary Presidents of the Rare Bird Club within Birdlife International. She is an International Vice President of PEN.
About the National Film Board of Canada
The world changes, our stories live on – that's the National Film Board of Canada's pledge to Canadians as it marks its 70th anniversary in 2009 with a new national online Screening Room and a slate of bold, innovative productions. Canada's public film producer and distributor, the NFB produces and distributes social-issue documentaries, auteur animation, alternative drama and digital content that provide the world with a unique Canadian perspective. In collaboration with its international partners and co-producers, the NFB is expanding the vocabulary of 21st century cinema and breaking new ground in form and content, through community filmmaking projects, cross-platform media, interactive cinema, stereoscopic animation – and more. Since the NFB's founding in 1939, it has created over 13,000 productions and won over 5,000 awards, including 12 Oscars and more than 90 Genies. To watch over 1000 productions online or for more information, visit NFB.ca.
“This is a brilliant book on a timely subject by one of the most accomplished writers in the world. It made complete sense to me that the NFB should produce this documentary,” commented NFB producer Ravida Din. “I am always thinking about the NFB's unique and integral role in culture, in artistic excellence and in producing thought-provoking social documentaries. Jennifer will bring her usual intensity and very clever approach to this subject. A collaboration with Margaret Atwood felt as obvious as a collaboration with Jennifer.”
“The writing in Payback is so rich and acute that the ideas literally jumped off the page when I read it. It was brimming with cinematic possibilities,” added Jennifer Baichwal. “I can't say what an honour it is to be working with Margaret and what a pleasure to be working with Ravida and the NFB, perhaps the most vital bastion of support for feature documentaries in Canada.”
Margaret Atwood said, “The documentary will have many wonderful visual elements that will enlarge the understanding of the story. I'm thrilled to be working with Jennifer and Ravida on this project. I am confident that they will do an excellent job.”
Margaret Atwood's Payback is not a book about practical debt management or high finance, although it does touch upon these subjects. Rather, it is an investigation into the idea of debt as an ancient and central motif in religion, literature and the structure of human societies. By investigating how debt has informed our thinking from preliterate times to the present day through the stories we tell each other, through our concepts of “balance,” “revenge,” and “sin,” and in the way we form our social relationships, Atwood shows that the idea of what we owe one another - in other words, “debt” - is built into the human imagination and is one of its most dynamic metaphors. Payback is a finalist for the 2009 National Business Book Award, a selected title of the 2008 Globe and Mail Top 100 Book of the Year and has been awarded Silver in the 2008 Axiom Business Book Awards - Business Ethics. Payback was released in October 2008 by House of Anansi Press anansi.ca.
Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth will be produced by Ravida Din.
This is Atwood's first collaboration with the NFB. In 1984, the NFB documented the life of one of Canada's most elusive literary figures in Margaret Atwood: Once in August (1984). This film has been added today to the NFB's online Screening Room at NFB.ca. Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth is Baichwal's second project with the NFB. Her first NFB film was Manufactured Landscapes (2006), which she directed and produced along with Nick de Pencier, Daniel Iron, Peter Starr (NFB) and Gerry Flahive (NFB).
About the Producer
Ravida Din has an uncompromising commitment to social justice and feminism. It is integral to her work and a strong guiding principle towards bringing an insightful and engaging analysis to social documentary film. In her position as the NFB's Quebec Executive Producer, her mandate is to envision and manage a varied program of theatrical and television documentaries, community-based media and alternative drama. Recent credits include: Up the Yangtze (Genie Award for Best Documentary 2009, Sundance 2008), Baghdad Twist (TIFF 2008), Nollywood Babylon (Sundance 2009) and Roadsworth: Crossing the Line (Hot Docs 2009).
About the Filmmaker
Jennifer Baichwal has been directing and producing documentaries for 15 years. Her films have played all over the world and won awards nationally and internationally. Her last feature, Manufactured Landscapes, about the work of artist Edward Burtynsky, won Best Canadian Feature Film at TIFF 2006 and was released in 12 countries. Act of God, a documentary about the metaphysical effects of being struck by lightning, is opening the Hot Docs Film Festival 2009 and will be released by Mongrel Media in Canada on May 1, 2009. It was commissioned by Documentary, Channel 4 and Arte France.
About the Author
Margaret Atwood is one of the world's preeminent writers – winner of the Booker Prize, the Scotiabank Giller Prize and the Governor General's Literary Award, among many other honours. She is the bestselling author of more than thirty-five books of poetry, fiction and nonfiction, including The Handmaid's Tale, Alias Grace, The Blind Assassin and Oryx and Crake. She lives in Toronto and on Pelee Island in Lake Erie. She and her spouse, writer Graeme Gibson, are the Joint Honourary Presidents of the Rare Bird Club within Birdlife International. She is an International Vice President of PEN.
About the National Film Board of Canada
The world changes, our stories live on – that's the National Film Board of Canada's pledge to Canadians as it marks its 70th anniversary in 2009 with a new national online Screening Room and a slate of bold, innovative productions. Canada's public film producer and distributor, the NFB produces and distributes social-issue documentaries, auteur animation, alternative drama and digital content that provide the world with a unique Canadian perspective. In collaboration with its international partners and co-producers, the NFB is expanding the vocabulary of 21st century cinema and breaking new ground in form and content, through community filmmaking projects, cross-platform media, interactive cinema, stereoscopic animation – and more. Since the NFB's founding in 1939, it has created over 13,000 productions and won over 5,000 awards, including 12 Oscars and more than 90 Genies. To watch over 1000 productions online or for more information, visit NFB.ca.
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For a downloadable hi-res image, go to www.nfb.ca/payback.
For more information, please contact:
Melissa Than, NFB Publicist
Phone: 416.952.8960,
Cell: 647.248.9854
E-mail: m.than@nfb.ca
