Tech Blog

[#1]

The National Film Board of Canada is a treasure to this country.  It has in its archives more than 13 000 films that have collected more than 5 000 awards - not bad odds.

In January the NFB opened up the archives to digitize for the web, placing the best of it's content in one place for you to view on demand.

The online screening room was created as part of a $1.3-million project to digitize the NFB's collection of historic films.

"This is part of our ongoing response to the digital revolution," NFB chair Tom Perlmutter said in an online news conference on Wednesday.

The NFB, which restructured its film programs over the past 18 months to free up resources for the digital project, plans to put 10
new films a month online.

[CBC]

The website was a hit and this fall the NFB took the next step with the release of an iPhone app. "Canadians paid for these films - they should be able to watch them," the NFB's Deborah Dridell told the CBC.

The NFB app is freeNFB app is free and simple to use.  Simply navigate to the content you want and press play.  Classics like Roch Carrier's The Hockey Sweater have had me and my toddler son bonding over what it means to be Canadian.   A quick flick of the finger and I've got the earworm of The Cat Came Back droning in my head while the classic Canadian animated short brings me back to my own youth.

There's another feature of the iPhone app that makes accessing the NFB's huge archive of documentaries a breeze - you can download the films to your phone
for viewing.  The file stays on your device for 24hours, so it's a perfect thing to load up while waiting at the airport before you board your flight.  On a recent trip I loaded up Carts of Darkness, a documentary about homeless bottle collectors in North Vancouver who hurtle down the district's huge hills on grocery carts in a thrill ride that would make people at the X-Games nervous.

Think of it as a thinking person's YouTube, the NFB iPhone app is easily one of the best in the iTunes store. No wonder the NFB was just nominated for 2 trophies for the Canadian New Media Awards.

catch the buzz ... pass it on.