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National Film Board of Canada

The creation of the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) is the central event in the history of Canadian cinema. The NFB has pioneered developments in social documentary, animation, documentary drama and direct cinema; and it has been a continuinginitiator of new technology. Its films have won hundreds of international awards. The NFB was founded 2 May 1939 under the terms of the National Film Act and following a report on government film activities by JohnGRIERSON,who was appointed the first film commissioner in October 1939. The act was revised in 1950, primarily to separate the NFB from direct government control; this revised act included the NFB's mandate to interpret Canada to Canadians and other nations.

The NFB was originally designed as a modestly staffed advisory board, but the demands of wartime production, together with John Grierson's personality, led to a shift into active production by absorbing (1941) the Canadian Government Motion Picture Bureau(formerly the Exhibits and Publicity Bureau, established in 1919). By 1945 the NFB had grown into one of the world's largest film studios with a staff of 787. More than 500 films had been released (including 2 propaganda series,The World in ActionandCanada Carries On, shown monthly in Canadian and foreign theatres), an animation unit had been set up under the supervision of Scottish-born animator NormanMCLAREN, non-theatrical distribution circuitswere established and many young Canadian filmmakers trained.

John Grierson resigned in 1945 and was replaced by his deputy, Ross McLean, who faced considerable difficulties in the postwar years. Budgets and staff were reduced and the NFB came under attack for allegedly harbouring left-wing subversives and as holdinga monopoly that threatened the livelihoods of commercial producers. McLean's replacement (1950), ArthurIRWIN, calmed the storm, initiated a new National Film Act, restructured the NFB along modern bureaucraticlines and planned to move the NFB from Ottawa to Montréal (completed 1956 under Irwin's successor, AlbertTRUEMAN).

Also during the postwar decade, production expanded into new areas: the first dramatic films were made, new techniques were explored in animation, and the information film and production for TV were initiated. Filmmakers paid more attention to style andtechnical polish, and new approaches emerged, more intimate in tone than the didactic approach of the war years. These were clearly evident in the films of one production group, Unit B, headed by TomDALY, whose workled in the late 1950s to the world's first consistent use of direct cinema in theCandid Eye TV series (14 films produced for and broadcast on the CBC, 1958-61).

In Québec the NFB was viewed for some years as a federalist agency that denied Québec's cultural aspirations. French-language production was minimal until the late 1950s when the demands of TV and the move to Montréal provided catalysts for expansion.Many young Québec filmmakers - PierrePERRAULT, GillesCARLE, MichelBRAULT, GillesGROULX, ClaudeJUTRA, DenysARCAND and others - were hired; they played seminal roles in the flowering of Québec cinema in the 1960s, both within and outside the NFB. These filmmakers refusedto accept the anglophone domination of the NFB's administration.

After a series of protests, the appointment of the first French-speaking commissioner, Guy Roberge, initiated a series of changes that culminated (1964) in a total separation of production along linguistic lines.

Women filmmakers made major contributions during the war years but were then virtually absent from active production until the early 1970s. Encouraged by such series asEn tant que femmes (1972-75) andWorking Mothers (1974-75), andthe development of Studio D under KathleenSHANNON, women have since made significant contributions both as directors and technicians. Indigenous peoples objected for many years to the folkloric and condescendingimages of themselves projected in NFB films. Only in the late 1960s, in such programs asChallenge for Change, did a truer portrait emerge. At the same time, First Nations people were given access to NFB equipment to produce their own films.These initiatives later led to such films as GilCARDINAL'sFoster Child (1987), AlanisOBOMSAWIN'sKanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance (1993), and ZachariasKUNUK's award-winning featureATANARJUAT - THE FAST RUNNER (2001), a co-production of the NFB and the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network.

In the late 60s the National Film Board decided it was time that First Nations got to be behind the camera and in charge of how they were seen. Although short lived, the Indian Film Crew would create films that changed how the NFB operated, as well as the face of Indigenous filmmaking in this country.
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This initial impetus towards an increasing accessibility to the means of production was continued through the 1970s as the NFB established regional production centres across Canada. Animation has always been an NFB priority and, though the workof such pioneers as Norman McLaren is widely recognized - hisNeighbours won an Oscar for short documentary in 1953 - it has been the Board's continuing commitment to encourage new talent that has maintained the vigour of this section and madeit one of the most admired in the world (see FILM ANIMATION). NFB film animators continue to win major festival prizes, such as those for RichardCONDIE'sLa Salla in 1997, Wendy Tilby and Amanda Forbis'sWhen the Day Breaks in 1999 and CordellBARKER'sStrange Invaders in 2001.

Production of dramatic feature films for theatrical release began in 1963 with Don Haldane'sDrylanders and has continued, despite debate about the appropriateness of such production within a state institution. Many NFB feature films have woninternational awards and have had wide release, such as Claude Jutra'sMON ONCLE ANTOINE (1971; consistently ranked by critics as the best Canadian feature film ever made), JeanBEAUDIN'sJ.A. MARTIN, PHOTOGRAPHE (1977), and Denys Arcand's Oscar-nominatedLE DÉCLIN DE L'EMPIRE AMÉRICAIN (The Decline of the American Empire) (1986);however, severe reductions in the NFB's budgets in the 1990s virtually eliminated this aspect of its program. The same budget cuts also forced the NFB to eliminate other programs and reduce its staff. A major review of its mandate in 2002 under a newfilm commissioner, Jacques Bensimon, emphasized digital production and distribution, the mentoring of young filmmakers, a renewed commitment to community involvement, and expanded partnerships with commercial producers. About half of all NFB productionsand co-productions are now by emerging filmmakers. The NFB is also making extensive use of the Internet, winning a Webby Award in 2010 for its co-production, Kevin McMahon'sWaterlife.

The once dominant position of the National Film Board has been significantly reduced since the 1960s by the growth of the commercial film industry and the expansion of television production. The Board's role in Canadian film has been further eroded byrecent cuts to its budget. But it has been able to adapt to changing realities, attract talented new filmmakers, emphasize high qualities of production, and maintain its position as the world's most widely respected national film agency. NFB films havewon nearly 70 Academy Award nominations and have been honoured with 12 Oscars, the first in 1941 for Stuart Legg'sChurchill's Island and the most recent in 2005 for ChrisLANDRETH'sRyan andin 2007 for Torill Kove'sThe Danish Poet. In 1989, the NFB won an honorary Oscar in recognition of its 50th anniversary and its record of filmmaking excellence.