Montreal – The National Film Board of Canada (NFB) has a wealth of free streaming at nfb.ca through the month of December, including online premieres of two acclaimed documentaries and timely programming. Phil Comeau’s feature doc The Secret Order kicks things off with an online premiere November 28, followed by Nisha Pahuja’s multi-award-winning Notice Pictures/NFB co-production To Kill a Tiger, debuting on nfb.ca on December 5.
It’s also a month of powerful works on women’s and human rights as Canadians mark 16 Days of Activism against Gender-based Violence (Nov. 25 to Dec. 10), the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women (Dec. 6), and Human Rights Day (Dec.10).
On the NFB Blog, film curator Camilo Martín-Flórez looks at how NFB creators past and present have explored the opportunities and risks of new technologies. With the holiday season fast approaching, there’s the NFB’s popular Ho Ho Holidays! channel. And as Canadians prepare to ring out the year, nfb.ca showcases its most popular films of 2023.
Starting November 28 | Online premiere, The Secret Order
- Phil Comeau shines a spotlight on the Ordre de Jacques-Cartier, a secret society that operated from 1926 to 1965, infiltrating every sector of Canadian society and forging the fate of French-language communities.
- Winner of three awards, including the Audience Choice Award at the 2022 Festival international du cinéma francophone en Acadie.
- Phil Comeau is a veteran Acadian filmmaker, screenwriter and producer who has directed some 100 films and TV episodes. Comeau is one of the great observers of contemporary Acadie, whose remarkable body of work engages with the history and identity of Atlantic Canada’s francophone-minority population.
- The Secret Order is streaming as part of the NFB’s new Unusual Stories channel, featuring strange and mysterious tales.
Special focus on women’s and human rights
With national and international observances on women’s and human rights, nfb.ca is an unparalleled destination for compelling Canadian programming:
- Starting December 5 | Online premiere, To Kill a Tiger
- In Nisha Pahuja’s multi-award-winning feature-length documentary To Kill a Tiger (Notice Pictures/NFB), Ranjit, a farmer in Jharkhand, India, takes on the fight of his life when he demands justice for his 13-year-old daughter, the victim of a brutal gang rape.
- Winner of over 20 awards, including Ted Rogers Best Feature Length Documentary at the Canadian Screen Awards and the Amplify Voices Award for Best Canadian Feature Film at TIFF.
- “To Kill a Tiger is a story of how one family’s strength can overcome even the most heinous injustices. Nisha is an incredibly powerful storyteller and her film is a triumph. Everyone should see it,” said Mindy Kaling, executive producer of the film along with Dev Patel, Rupi Kaur and Deepa Mehta.
- Nisha Pahuja is an Emmy-nominated filmmaker based in Toronto and Bombay, whose previous credits include Diamond Road (2007 Gemini Award for Best Documentary Series) and The World Before Her (2012; Best Documentary, Tribeca; Best Canadian Documentary, Hot Docs; Canada’s Top Ten).
- Also featured on nfb.ca:
- Habibata Ouarme and Jim Donovan’s new NFB feature doc KOROMOUSSO: Big Sister, in which women break cultural taboos surrounding female sexuality and take back ownership of their bodies.
- Women’s Rights and Emancipation, works that challenge taboos around women’s rights, their sexuality, and their fight for bodily autonomy.
- Human Rights channel, a curated selection of films on the inalienable fundamental rights to which all persons are entitled.
Canadian Society and Technology in NFB Films: Challenges and Opportunities
Artificial intelligence (AI) is the latest and greatest example of how technology is changing everything. But the digital transformation has long roots. In Camilo Martín-Flórez’s Curator’s Perspective, NFB films explore the dilemmas, challenges and opportunities of digital tech since the early 1960s.
Works include Tyler Funk’s new feature doc on online celebrity, Anything for Fame; Sandra Rodriguez’s cutting-edge VR installation CHOM5KY vs CHOMSKY: A Playful Conversation on AI; as well as Kevin McCracken’s 1987 animated short Future Block, recently added to nfb.ca.
Ho Ho Holidays!
It wouldn’t be the holidays at nfb.ca without Ho Ho Holidays!, a channel of over 50 seasonal classics, recent works and family favourites. Holiday highlights include:
- Sheldon Cohen’s iconic The Sweater, adapted from Roch Carrier’s much-loved hockey story;
- Alanis Obomsawin’s classic Christmas at Moose Factory;
- And the stop-motion adventures ofLudovic, the teddy bear in Co Hoedeman’s delightful series for children.
Most-viewed titles in 2023
The NFB web team has pulled together the most-viewed titles of 2023 on nfb.ca, with auteur animation and POV documentaries both strongly represented.
Topping the list is Amanda Forbis and Wendy Tilby’s Oscar-nominated animated short The Flying Sailor. The next two films were directed by legendary Abenaki filmmaker Alanis Obomsawin: her landmark 1993 work Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance, followed by her 2014 doc Trick or Treaty?
With 15 films in total, nfb.ca’s best of 2023 has something for all tastes: a testament to the great depth of the NFB’s collection—and its discerning viewers.