The National Film Board of Canada (NFB) announced that is introducing high-definition (HD) films online as well as recent experiments in online 3-D.
According to the statement, these are the latest example of how the NFB is striving to use digital technologies to connect Canadians with their past, reflect and share their present, and explore their future.
A year ago the NFB launched its online Screening Room followed soon after by its iPhone app. Since then, the Screening Room has registered over 3.7 million film views.
Starting immediately, 26 films are available in high definition. HD titles include Chris Landreth’s Oscar-winning animated short Ryan, coproduced with Copper Heart Entertainment, as well as Cordell Barker’s beloved musical comedy short The Cat Came Back. HD documentaries include Murray Siple’s Carts of Darkness, a look at the extreme sport of shopping-cart racing, already one of the NFB’s top-viewed titles in standard definition, and Brett Gaylor’s award-winning Rip: A Remix Manifesto, co-produced with EyeSteelFilm.
French-language HD titles include Claude Jutra’s Mon oncle Antoine, chosen by critics as the greatest Canadian film of all time, Michel Brault and Pierre Perrault’s classic Pour la suite du monde, along with great animations like Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski’s Madame Tutli Putli and Sheldon Cohen’s hockey classic Le Chandail, adapted from the story by Roch Carrier.
The NFB is also sharing the fruit of its 3D experiments online with the acclaimed NFB animated shorts Drux Flux by Theodore Ushev and the Genie Award-winning Falling in Love Again by Munro Ferguson, as well as excerpts from Facing Champlain, a stereoscopic production created for the 400th anniversary celebrations in Quebec City, directed by Jean-François Pouliot and produced in collaboration with the Musée de la civilisation du Québec.
“Normally, organizations don’t share their experimental processes,” said Tom Perlmutter. “But we want to start changing that – letting Canadians into the creative workshop. It’s a little retro at the moment with the funky glasses, but it’s a playroom, it’s the skunk work of testing things out while we figure out how to make this fully part of the NFB online experience.”
These films will be available in 3D on the Screening Room as well as iPhones. Users will be able to order 3D glasses online with free shipping in Canada.
These new HD and 3D titles join over 1,400 NFB productions online, in English and French, with new titles added weekly. Available free of charge, 24/7, these titles include acclaimed auteur animation, point-of-view documentaries, new works by independent filmmakers, alternative dramas, cinéma vérité classics, and more.