Somebody from the National Film Board of Canada emailed to tell me they’d launched a new version of their site at NFB.ca. At first glance, it looks like a nice, clean redesign, with the emphasis on the films, where it should be. The ‘featured film’ this week is an hour-long piece called “Carts of Darkness”, which tells the story of some Vancouver homeless guys who get their thrills by racing shopping carts. You can watch the whole thing on the NFB’s site.
Or, because the NFB was clever, I can embed it in my site, just like YouTube:
http://media1.nfb.ca/medias/flash/ONFflvplayer-gama.swf
I quite like the slick, icon-free way they implemented the ‘Share this film’ feature.
Not all of the implementation is quite that slick. I searched for a favourite wacky film from my childhood, “Paddle to the Sea”, and the clip on offer is served up in the dreaded RealPlayer.
It’s understandable that their archives would be a bit of a format nightmare, though. This looks, after a quick look around, like a wise evolution of the NFB’s web presence.
DarrenBarefoot.com 
Paddle to the Sea, and many other films, are still only accessible through the format we established on our old site… We are slowly working on getting as many films as possible available on the new site where the quality and sharing options will be much better. Still a work in progress. We’re going to be adding about 10 films per month.
We didn’t want to remove all the old web pages and film viewing options. So at the moment you’re seeing the two sites sort of co-existing with each other.
I’m simply happy to see that the NFB is sharing so many fantastic films – especially this one. Siple’s doc is excellent. Hope folks give it some time!