It’s ‘Payback’ Time for NFB and Jennifer Baichwal

On the eve of her Hot Docs Film Festival world premiere of Act of God, the National Film Board has announced the all-Canadian documentary film project which would see doc filmmaker Jennifer Baichwal adapt author Margaret Atwood‘s timely piece on the current economic meltdown.

The NFB have optioned Atwood’s nonfiction book “Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth“. No stragner to the NFB, Baichwal is of course best know for one of the better documentary films of the past decade (Manufactured Landscapes) on the subject of the global costs, effects and results of our mass consumption from everything to dollar store junk to high end electronics.

Not to be confused with the sci-fi thriller starring Ben Affleck, “Payback” will probe how the metaphor of indebtedness has shaped societies over time, including our own. THR reports that Atwood’s book grew out of a lecture series sponsored by the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. that took place in the fall, just as the Wall Street upheaval caused by interlocking global debt began to unfold.

Baichwal expects the CAN$1 million ($800,000) NFB documentary to employ archival material and animation to help engage audiences. Production is set for late 2009, with the NFB’s Ravida Din producing.