National Film Board Redefines its Relationship with Indigenous Peoples

The National Film Board is redefining its relationship with Indigenous people by hiring more Indigenous staff and investing more in Indigenous works as part of a three-year plan titled ‘Redefining the NFB’s Relationship with Indigenous Peoples’.

The plan will provide all of its staff with cross-cultural training, increase its number of Indigenous employees from two to 16 by the year 2025, and commit to ensuring 15 per cent of production spending goes toward Indigenous content.

According to CBC, NFB Chairperson Claude Joli-Coeur, said the organization has worked with Indigenous Peoples for years but are now taking on a 360 approach completely transforming the organization in a three-year strategy.

In response to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission that included 94 “calls to action” (listed in its final report), it was the concept that drove the plan.

According to the Globe and Mail, “The NFB has a long history of making films about Canada’s First Nations, sometimes from respectful non-Indigenous perspectives, sometimes from less sensitive ones. That changed in 1968, however, when the board recognized that Indigenous people had a right to tell their own stories and established the “Indian Film Crew.” Michael Kanentakeron Mitchell’s “You Are on Indian Land,” a 1969 record of protests at a border crossing near Cornwall, Ont., which the NFB recently recredited to the Mohawk director and activist, was the one of the earliest examples.

NFB’s new screen office will establish an umbrella organization that can help Indigenous projects, including feature films, short films, TV programs and interactive media, navigate funding, production and distribution.

In an industry that has grown over the years, NFB may make this career option more viable for young Indigenous people.