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I am a fan of the NFB, or the National Film Board for those outside of Canada. The NFB is a wholly government-funded agency that produces films about Canada and has done since before the second world war. Some of the early stuff, particularly during the WW2 was certainly propaganda but in amongst the 13,000 films they have produced in the last 70 years are many fascinating views of Canada most of which I am sure would never have been made if there was no NFB. Some people take the view that it's a waste of money and that the government shouldn't be spending tax dollars on making films about Canada and Canadians. I can certainly think of worse things that have been paid for by tax dollars than the small investment it takes to provide such a unique reflection of ourselves!

Of the 13000 films I think they have won 70 Oscars, many for animation. There is also controversy, the first NFB film to win an Oscar was a short by Norman McLaren called Neighbors which was deemed too violent for government produced film. As well there was the 1982 film [ at least I think it was 82] the  If You Love This Planet, which was basically a lecture given by the anti nuclear activist Dr. Helen Caldicott.  The film had two distinctions, it won an Oscar for best short documentary subject and was virtually banned in the USA as the Department of Justice felt it was propaganda!

When I was but a lad, I used to borrow NFB films from the local office [ which I don't think it exists anymore ] and watch them on a very old 16mm projector on the wall in the kitchen. For a while there it was hard to watch the films because there was no local office and you had to go to one of the main offices if you wanted to watch them. Technology of course has changed all that and now the NFB has put 700 of its films or clips from its films online.

 A new film that looks quite interesting is The Memories Of Angels.  it is a film by Luc Bourdon about the Montréal of the 1950s and 1960s, made from clips of 120 NFB films. I've included the trailer here: