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  2. Press Kit

The NFB Collection Conservation Rooms

The National Film Board, caretaker of an accessible, living audiovisual heritage that belongs to all Canadians

The NFB: A world leader in conservation, restoration and digitization


A great diversity of conserved items


Carefully archived duplicate media assets


Digitization and restoration at the NFB: The key to increased accessibility


Technical details: The NFB’s new conservation and digitization rooms


A little history

Images


Conservation room for magnetic sound. Photo by Marie-France Rousseau for the NFB.

Left to right: guillotine splicer, 16-mm film synchronizer and 35-mm film synchronizer. Photo by Marie-France Rousseau for the NFB.

Tape recorder used for ¼-inch magnetic sound transfer. Photo by Marie-France Rousseau for the NFB.

Worktable for lab technicians inspecting and preparing film elements. Photo by Marie-France Rousseau for the NFB.

Still from the film Churchill’s Island (1941), by Stuart Legg. © National Film Board of Canada. All rights reserved.

Barbara Ulrich and Claude Godbout in a scene from Gilles Groulx’s film The Cat in the Bag (1964). © National Film Board of Canada. All rights reserved.

An exterior view of the building specially designed to house the NFB’s conservation, restoration and digitization rooms on Cousens Street in Montreal. Photo by Maryse Boyce for the NFB (2023).

An NFB conservation technician demonstrating how to use a synchronizer to synchronize a reel of 16mm footage with its corresponding magnetic sound reel. Photo by Maryse Boyce for the NFB (2023).

An editing bench with several reels of film leader and other equipment (splicers and synchronizers). Photo by Maryse Boyce for the NFB (2023).

Various formats of videocassettes used in different eras, stored in the NFB Conservation Rooms. Photo by Maryse Boyce for the NFB (2023).

Film cans specially designed for conservation of the NFB collection and now used by archivists worldwide. Photo by Maryse Boyce for the NFB (2023).

Media Relations

  • About the NFB

    Founded in 1939, the National Film Board of Canada (NFB) is a one-of-a-kind producer, co-producer and distributor of distinctive, engaging, relevant and innovative documentary and animated films. As a talent incubator, it is one of the world’s leading creative centres. The NFB has enabled Canadians to tell and hear each other’s stories for over eight decades, and its films are a reliable and accessible educational resource. The NFB is also recognized around the world for its expertise in preservation and conservation, and for its rich and vibrant collection of works, which form a pillar of Canada’s cultural heritage. To date, the NFB has produced more than 14,000 works, 6,500 of which can be streamed free of charge at nfb.ca. The NFB and its productions and co-productions have earned over 7,000 awards, including 11 Oscars and an Honorary Academy Award for overall excellence in cinema.