Inside Hothouse 15 - Part 2
2025 · 17m · Canada
Directed by Simon Girard
Genres: animation, documentary
Tones: contemplative, tender
Six emerging animators in the NFB's 12-week Hothouse 15 residency create their first professional animated shorts with full National Film Board support, captured behind the scenes in part two.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
A making-of doc about emerging animators grinding through a residency—it's the opposite of subversive, basically a pedigree flex for institutional cinema, and yet Girard's refusal to dramatize or manipulate the process into a narrative arc is quietly radical in its own boring way.
Girard's behind-the-scenes approach situates itself squarely in the NFB's long tradition of reflexive documentary practice, where the act of creation becomes the subject; the formal restraint and observational patience here recall the institution's lineage while letting each animator's voice emerge with dignity and specificity.
The film's power hinges on a single editorial choice: letting dead time breathe—the pauses between strokes, the stillness of thinking—which transforms what could've been a highlight reel into something that actually captures what it means to make something from nothing in twelve weeks.