NFB, CBC...
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The National Film Board of Canada was founded in 1939 ‘To produce and distribute and to promote the production and distribution of films designed to interpret Canada to Canadians and to other nations.’
John Grierson was the founding Commissioner and had a positive influence on documentary filmmaking in Canada and around the world. His first film, Drifters (1929), the silent depiction of the harsh life of herring fishermen in the North Sea revolutionized the portrayal of working people in the cinema.
After 1945 when the anti-communist hysteria began Grierson’s name and reputation was slandered and maligned and he was forced out of the NFB.
During the 1940s and early 1950s, the NFB employed 'travelling projectionists' who toured the country, bringing films and public discussions to rural communities
The NFB has won more than 5,000 awards, including a heap of Oscars, Golden Bears and Palmes d’Ors. Norman McLaren was a ground-breaking animation film maker and won numerous awards for his films.
The NFB studio opened in 1956 in Montreal and was a state-of-the-art film production studio - the first of its kind in Canada. In 2019 the studio was closed.
Cutbacks to production began in 1965 and in 1980 film production was cut completely.
The CBC was founded in 1936 to serve as the national public broadcaster for both radio and television.
The network produced hundreds of shows and all were made in-house. For example, the TV series King of Kensington was shot in the CBC studios and produced by CBC staff. Today, Kim’s Convenience, airing on CBC, is filmed at Showline Studios and produced by Thunderbird Films.
The current Toronto studios opened in 1993 at a cost of $375 million and today only a third of the building is occupied by CBC. Vancouver’s building was built in 1975.
In 1984 1,100 jobs were cut and at that time there were 12,000 employees and today there are 7,500 employees.
In 2006 the English TV design department was closed and gone are the skilled craftspeople, the carpentry, paint, metal and special effects shops, and the unique wardrobe and prop departments.
In Montreal, at the announcement of the closing of the wardrobe department, a group of 400 artists and cultural workers signed a letter protesting the closing. “We the artists and cultural workers from the theatre community, we who in the daily practice of our art bring new and classic characters to life on stage, we who dress our actors in costumes which serve to complete the very dimension of the characters they play, we in the theatrical community, who regularly use the CBC wardrobe department, are outraged by the announcement of its closing.”
Radio drama studios closed in 2012. CBC museum closed in 2017. Canada now ranks 16th out of 18 industrial countries in funding for national broadcasting.
What new forms for our national broadcasting needs will we develop in these changing and difficult times?
