“Hell yes. This is how public money should be spent.”
-Cory Doctorow on NFB.ca

True story:

When I was teaching in Korea, my students didn’t know anything about Canada. To Korean kids, Canada is as abstract and irrelevant as Antarctica. When Canada Day rolled around I wanted to show them a movie. Something that might give them an idea of where I came from.

I googled the NFB thinking maybe I could download or pay to show them The Hockey Sweater online somehow.

Nothing.

There were only institutional copies of the film on DVD for over $50.

Fast-foward four years and I’ve been working on NFB.ca for over a year. We’ve put over 700 films – documentaries, animations – online, free for home-viewing.

The site moved out of beta last week and made headlines across the country. There are over 10 pages of comments on the CBC.ca news story and just about all of them are overwhelmingly positive.

When I think of Canada, I think of this movie. Conflicted, cold, charming.

I hope there’s a Canadian teacher in Korea right now showing this to a classroom full of kids.