A co-production of

Otherly

Various Directors

2021

7 Short Documentaries

English

Premiering on Instagram Stories, Otherly is a series of seven short documentaries about finding one's place in the 21st century. Using universal themes like love, inclusion, and loss as entry points, seven female, non-binary, and genderqueer creators have crafted films that are at once timeless and yet by definition of their form, ephemeral.

The stories range from family relationships to exploring LGBTQIA+ identities to a search for freedom and independence. During this time of enforced social distancing, it's especially poignant that the films were created for Instagram, one of the few spaces in which we're able to stay connected.

Otherly is a co-production between the National Film Board of Canada and POV Spark, marking the first collaboration between the two internationally renowned institutions.

see our Electronic Press Kit for more information.

Premieres March 15, 2021

Parked: Seeking Refuge in Our Cars

by Mirusha Yogarajah

Parked: Seeking Refuge in Our Cars is a short doc about a subculture of Tamil youth who use their vehicles as makeshift second homes to seek freedom.

Premieres March 17, 2021

Elaine Is Almost

by Em Yue

Shot over the course of a year, Elaine Is Almost explores the unconditional love between siblings as they each navigate their place in the world.

Premieres March 19, 2021

Love Is the First Sacred Lesson

by Jess Murwin

Love Is the First Sacred Lesson is a first-person documentary that follows the filmmaker's journey to connect and reconcile the different parts of their identity: queer, trans, Mi'kmaw. An existential road trip back to the East Coast.

Premieres March 22, 2021

Integrate.Me

by Tristan Angieri

Integrate.Me explores the use of an experimental therapy to treat Tristan's PTSD, as they learn to navigate being queer and trans.

Premieres March 24, 2021

Papier Accordéon

by Grace An

Papier Accordéon unfolds over a period of 24 hours, as two friends in different cities spend their time together from a distance.

Premieres March 26, 2021

A Portrait of Tracy

by Joanne Lam

A Portrait of Tracy is a short experimental doc that explores the echoes of childhood memory from an immigrant's perspective: what is lost to time and distance, and what remains.

Premieres March 29 - April 2, 2021

FaceTime

by Jackie! Zhou

FaceTime follows Andy and Farrah as they navigate their individual identities, chosen family, and relationship as bi-coastal siblings.

About the NFB

The NFB is Canada's public producer of award-winning creative documentaries, auteur animation, interactive stories and participatory experiences. NFB producers are embedded in communities across the country, from St. John's to Vancouver, working with talented creators on innovative and socially relevant projects. The NFB is a leader in gender equity in film and digital media production, and is working to strengthen Indigenous-led production, guided by the recommendations of Canada's Truth and Reconciliation Commission. NFB productions have won over 7,000 awards, including 27 Canadian Screen Awards, 21 Webbys, 12 Oscars and more than 100 Genies. To access this award-winning content and discover the work of NFB creators, visit NFB.ca, download its apps for mobile devices or visit NFB Pause.

About POV Spark

POV Spark is the interactive arm of the iconic independent PBS documentary series POV. POV films and projects have won 42 Emmy Awards, 25 George Foster Peabody Awards, 14 Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Awards, three Academy Awards and the first-ever George Polk Documentary Film Award. POVis a production of American Documentary (AmDoc), a national non-profit media arts organization that strives to make essential documentaries accessible as a catalyst for public discourse. AmDoc collaborates with passionate filmmakers to amplify their voices, and to nurture the nonfiction community. Learn more at pbs.org/pov, access POV Spark projects, and follow @povdocs on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook.

Major funding for POV Spark's Otherly films was provided by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the Open Society Foundations, National Endowment for the Arts and Perspective Fund.

Special thanks to our promotional partners: Alok Vaid-Menon, Blackstar Film Festival, Booooooom, Breakwater Studios, Camden International Film Festival, Center for Asian American Media, Center for Documentary Studies at Duke University, DOCNYC, Eyebeam, Film Fatales, Got a Girl Crush, House of Yes, International Documentary Association, Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art, Lez Spread the Word, New Museum, NextShark, Outfest, PBS SoCal, The Phluid Project, The Video Consortium and UrbanWorld Film Festival.