The National office of film of Canada (ONF, National Board Film - NFB - in English) is a federal cultural agency Canadian which concerns the ministry for the Inheritance. Its seat and its studios are located at Montreal.

Grierson

It is known with its creation under the name of National Commission on the cinematograph , and was created by a law of the Parliament in 1939: it will be in its first years primarily a place of propaganda, of which the installation is given to John Grierson, a scenario writer Britannique documentarist full with ideal. One must in particular in Grierson have brought the young Scottish organizer Norman McLaren with the ONF.

The War

The accomplished ONF its spot very effectively. With the war the institution continues to play a big role on the level of propaganda - what Grierson calls of " the éducation" - both in Canada and abroad. This work is done in Ottawa, in English. With time, a certain share of the production will be translated for Quebec. There is then original production in French only in an exceptional way, and that towards the end of the war, in the context of the delicate promise made around the district

Post-war period

After the war, its new mandate, such as it is defined in the Law on the cinema of 1950 is “ to produce and distribute films intended to make known and to include/understand Canada with the Canadians and the other nations, and to promote the production and the distribution of such films ”. Thus the promotion campaign of Canada begun in the context from the war will be maintained, and will become one of principal causes formidable wave of European immigration of the post-war period.

Ideal Canada

Moreover, many which is those allot to this ONF of before 1955 the constitution of the image of Épinal of made Canada of big spaces, wild beasts, “Indians”, of fertile grounds, polished and pleasant people. One then presents an image which paradoxically far from that is not very diffused by the “quota quickies” in the years '30. (See about the phenomenon of the representation of Canada before the ONF Romancing the Redcoat: In Canadian Hero Lost in Hollywood.)

The ONF in Montreal

Following its installation in Ottawa, the institution moves in Montreal, cradle historical of the Canadian industry of the cinema. To give an idea of the documentary spirit which reigns then, it is enough to say that plans of the studios of the ONF which is then built in Montreal reproduce in any point (grid of lighting, ventilation passivates, structure) those of the model, the Hollywood major: one will have only taken care to reduce the size of it to the quarter.

The Canadian government remains very reticent to set up a French section, saying to fear an expensive internal duplication, and, one can imagine it, a certain loss of control. But vis-a-vis the activism of the French-speaking scenario writers of Montreal, and in front of the pressures of the Québécois public opinion then very sensitive to the national questions, Ottawa yields.

Service of photography

In 1941, when the Office of cinematography of the Canadian government amalgamated with the ONF, this one was in charge of the production of films and photographs. Consequently, a Service of photography was formed the same year. In 1985, the Service of the photography of the ONF became officially the Canadian Musée of contemporary photography. The Service engaged photographers with the measuring rod of 1941 to 1984 to show all the aspects of the life in Canada. Illustrating domestic and family as well as economic activities, policies and social scenes or events, these images were diffused widely by magazines, newspapers, exposures, school handbooks and pullings governmental.

Artistic effervescence

The ONF of this time is the place of an extraordinary creative effervescence, in particular in its sector of animation and its French sector, the creation of the latter being indissociable of a heat fights of national assertion to the Quebec. It was between 1955 and 1975 a single place of creation in its kind which allowed the emergence of many creators and many techniques. One invents there in particular IMAX, the direct Cinéma, many techniques of animation (scraping of film, pixillation, screen of pins,…), research in data-processing imagery is carried out there which will lead to the special effects of Softimage. The impact of this institution on the world of the images moving is thus considerable.

Dark shades and points

The ONF was nevertheless also a place of censure, with regard to Gilles Groulx and Denys Arcand in particular. Today directed in a very directing way by an administration clearly more attentive with the image of the agency and management of its mark that to creation, the ONF at tiny room to the third of its total budget production of new films, using of coproduction minority to ensure its radiation.

Logo

No logo was used before 1968. The logo used in 1968 was that of the man visionary. In 1993, one put it at it within a framework to add to it the abbreviation bilingual of organization (ONF-NFB).

The current logo, appearing the head of the man visionary as well as the same bilingual abbreviations of the organization, is used since December 25th 2002.

CinéRobothèque - ONF-Montreal Center

In 1993, the National office of film inaugurated a single center in the world of viewing robotized on request. Located at 1564 rue St-Denis, this videoclub makes it possible today to look at on the spot more than 8.300 titles of the ONF, also proposing the lease and the purchase of its titles. CinéRobothèque gives also many workshops on the cinema of animation and the documentary one, accommodating more than 17.000 participants each year.

In the ONF-Montreal Center, it there also a superb cinema of 140 places used by many festivals. A vidéothéâtre of 24 places supplements public spaces of the building.

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