LUCIDMEDIA

The National Film Board of Canada: A Reel Must See for 70 Years

Written by Andrew Skinner Wednesday, 16 September 2009 09:28

This year is the 70th anniversary of the National Film Board of Canada (NFB), and what a celebration it will be for the NFB has brought Canadians, and the world, an incredible library of intelligent and entertaining films that might not ever, otherwise, be experienced. So this year the NFB’s line-up of films at the Toronto International Film Festival should be of particular note, and a good opportunity to view on the big screen.

First created in 1939 as the National Film Commission, it initially served a more propagandistic purpose during World War II, but this quickly changed. It is now an institution with numerous awards, including 12 Oscars and 90 Genies. Playing at this year’s TIFF are six films from the NFB, including five shorts, three of them animated, and one feature documentary.

The films are diverse and by a few well known names in Canadian cinema. The Spine is a film made by Chris Landreth, who won an Oscar in 2005 for the short film Ryan. Neil Diamond’s Reel Injun is a full length documentary on the image portrayed by Hollywood of the Native American throughout history. There’s also Guy Maddin’s Night Mayor, Cordell Barker’s Runaway, Bruce Alcock’s Viva la Rose, and Chelsea McMullan’s Deadman. An additional feature already seen at this year’s Venice Biennale is Cold Morning by Mark Lewis, which is an NFB co-production presented in Future Projections for works outside of cinema space.

Aside from actual film production, the NFB has always worked together with educators [and fishing villages], helping teachers move from projectors to VHS and they continue today to make easy access to film one of their priorities. More recently that’s included Mediatheque, an effort by the NFB to make their library of films more easily accessible. This year, the NFB launched an online Screening Rooms for its films, so you can now view from the comfort of your own home hundreds of films from its massive collection of titles.

Offline there’s the Mediatheque Centre in Downtown Toronto which was set up in 2002 to make public access and media literacy easier. Mediatheque has digital viewing stations where you can choose from and watch thousands of movies including documentaries, short films, animation and archival footage of NFB and its co-productions. Over 100,000 people a year, including a few Mediatheque fanatics, take advantage of these facilities. As well you can rent out films for a small fee or take in one of the many special screenings and events in the NFB’s own theatre, which is well used for both public and for private showings throughout the year.
Along with education, about 120 kids a day throughout the summer take part in workshops like the animation film course. Starting from a storyboard, groups of four or five with names like Team Awesome, The Flying Orthodondists, Eggzit, and Slothline Pictures, get to make their own animated movie. Who knows, some day these students may end up like Gerry Flahive who has a developed a remarkable resume at the NFB by producing and co-producing a whole slew of vital documentaries.

Since his time as a kid watching 2001: A Space Odyssey, at the old Imperial Six Theatre in Toronto, Flahive knew that he was destined to work in film, just not as a director he later found. Taxiing reels around Toronto was his literal introduction to film distribution and in his time working at the NFB he saw and experienced a lot of editing and transition from reels of raw footage.

He emphasizes that a producer at NFB is often much more involved and engaged in the creative process right from the beginning. This is often as a result of dealing with emerging talent, although he does work with established filmmakers as well. Part of the process is that the team of producer, director, cinematographer, editor and researcher, right from the beginning, often do a short test shoot before actual filming to get a feel for their planned project.

The first film Flahive produced, The Man Who Might Have Been: An Inquiry into the Life and Death of Herbert Norman, is a good example of the kind of project that would otherwise never have been made without NFB support. Herbert Norman was a brilliant diplomat who came under heavy scrutiny while posted in the US during the Red Scare, reportedly driving him to suicide in 1957. His story was given life again thanks to the NFB film. Campaign: The Making of a Candidate is a relatively grass roots film and interesting peek into the rise of David Miller, a former Toronto Councillor and the City’s current Mayor.

In fact, many of the films Flahive has overseen are profiles of particular Canadians like writer/satirist Bruce McCallor media philosopher Marshal McLuhan. But his largest production to date is the soon to be released Paris 1919 about the Peace Conference following WW1, based on a book by Canadian author Margaret MacMillan. The film screened earlier this year at the Hot Docs Film Festival.

Flahive says that overseas the NFB’s reputation is second to none in terms of being identifiable with Canadian film, and they have more Oscars than any other production house outside of Hollywood. “It’s our role to be provocative, to be creatively challenging, to tell stories that wouldn’t get told otherwise, to work with a range of talent, to really be a creative complement to what else is going on out there,” Flahive says. “And so, we don’t see ourselves competing with the private sector at all, we’re doing something that’s complementary…we don’t go to broadcasters and say, what do you want?”

The NFB role, as Flahive understands it, is to present and interpret Canadian points of view and values. That has, and always will be the NFB’s mandate and goal and Lahive is positive about the tremendous step forward that documentaries have made in recent years. After all, he’s been a part of NFB’s evolution from carrying great reels around town to streaming video directly to home computers
Tom Perlmutter has been the Government Film Commissioner and Chairperson of the National Film Board since 2007, but before that he was an independent producer and director working with documentaries. “It’s not about making policy, it’s not about academic studies, it’s not about social activism per se, it is about the ways in which art actually transforms by engaging people’s hearts and souls and minds,” says Perlmutter.

This has not changed much since the days of Norman McLaren, who developed and defined what the NFB has largely become; a man whose innovative work as an animator earned him over 200 awards and on to the Registry of UNESCO’s Memory of the World Program.

The NFB is notable (and laudable) for not just being focused on creating a cultural identity, but for being artist driven and along those visions to go where they need to.  “It’s so Canadian in its ability to give voice to its marginal communities,” explains Perlmutter. “We are in the process of radically redefining what a 21st century nation is. […] I think the world is following in that aspect because you can no longer create that old 19th century model of the nation, based on an ethnic identity, doesn’t work.”

He uses Film Maker in Residence [also produced by Gerry Flahive] as an example. It’s a documentary which was an ongoing series and collaborative project of citizens, doctors and nurses, on the frontlines with St. Michael’s Hospital, and resulted in an award winning website about health issues. This journey in film wouldn’t happen anywhere else because it was about the process. “That ability to allow process to dominate and to take you places, is unique,” says Perlmutter, “things that may take two, three years to film.”

There is some “alternative drama” at NFB, but Flahive and Perlmutter both agree that there is not much point in doing what the private sector is going to do anyway and there just isn’t the budget for it. Some one else is going to make the Trailer Park Boys.

But it isn’t all just The Cat Came Back and The Log Driver’s Waltz. With thousands of films, Mediatheque, and online access and digitization getting better all the time, these movies were made for us to see. Perlmutter is extremely passionate about the NFB and its ability to create alternative cinema. He says that the work done by Canadian directors in the private sector is great, but it’s not all there is to Canadian film. “I think the thing that is most unique in terms of Canada’s contribution to world cinema has been to my mind the National Film Board.”

To learn more about the NFB, go to their website at www.nfb.ca