National Film Board of Canada film collection

Scope and Contents

This collection includes 83 films (125 16mm reels) produced by the National Film Board of Canada (NFBC) between 1951 and 1983. Many of the collection films are documentaries and range from 2 minutes in length to 75 minutes in length.

Filmmakers in this collection include: Alan Collins, Alanis Obomsawin (Abenaki), Allan Wargon, Anne MacLeod, Austin Campbell, Bernard Gosselin, Bill Reid, Caroline Leaf, Co Hoedeman, Colin Browne, Colin Low, John Spotton, Cynthia Scott, Dalton Muir, David Bairstow, David Hughes, Derek May, Don Owen, Donald Brittain, Douglas Wilkinson, Duke Redbird (Ojibwa), Henning Jacobsen, Ernest Reid, Eugene Boyko, Gilles Blais, Harvey Spak, Henning Jacobsen, Ian McLaren, J.V. Durden, Jacques Godbout, Francoise Bujold, Joan Henson, John Feeney, John Gould, Kathleen Shannon, Ken Buck, Laurence Hyde, Marcel Carrière, Martin Defalco, Martin Duckworth, Martine Defalco, Willie Dunn, Michael Kanentakeron Mitchell (Mohawk [Akwesasne]), Michael Scott, Michel Régnier, Mosha Michael (Inuit), Norma Bailey, Bob Lower, Pierre Hebert, Quentin Brown, René Bonnière, Pierre Perrault, Richard Gilbert, Jack Ofield, Robert Young, Roger Hart, Terence Macartney-Filgate, Tom Shandel, Tony Ianzelo, Anthony Kent, Willie Dunn (Mi'kmaq/Scottish).

These films were made among and about First Nations and Indigenous communities across Canada including the Saulteaux, Anishinaabe (Chippewa/Ojibwa), Inuit, Mi'kmaq, Cree, Mohawk, Kainai Blackfoot, Attikamekw, Innu, and Métis communities.

Content Warning

Please note that these film reflect the context and culture of the time of their creation and includes what is considered derogatory and harmful language today, specifically the term "Eskimo." The information within this collection does not reflect the views of the National Museum of the American Indian, Smithsonian Institution, but is available in its original form to facilitate research.

Arrangement

Arranged by catalog number (#300-1 to #383-1)

National Film Board of Canada (NFB)

The National Film Board of Canada's film collection comprises over 13,000 titles, available in English and in French. This imposing archive consists of social documentaries in a range of styles, Second World War propaganda films, newsreels or newsmagazines, and sponsored films commissioned by other federal government departments. It also includes experimental films, Web documentaries, interactive productions, and auteur animation created with an endless variety of animation techniques (some developed entirely or partly at the NFB), as well as short- and feature-length dramas made for television or theatrical release. The NFB collection reflects more than 75 years of Canadian history, from the founding of the NFB in 1939 to the present day. Through their works, the NFB's filmmakers—whether seasoned veterans or emerging directors, Indigenous people, members of Canada's cultural or linguistic minorities or English- or French-speaking majority—document social issues and the concerns and lives of Canadians in every region of the country, and of people around the world, from authentically Canadian perspectives. Over the years, the films in the NFB collection have garnered more than 5,000 awards and honours, including 5 Palmes d'or at Cannes and 12 Oscars.

http://onf-nfb.gc.ca/en/our-collection/ (accessed 3/10/2023)