The NFB's Awesome, Awesome iPhone App

This thing rules

Submitted by mike, 10/21/09 1:39 PM

We 'n' the NFB: we forget about them, until they do something really, really awesome. As a government cultural agency, the NFB can irk folks, especially in times of Global Financial Panic Meltdown. But there aren’t too many Canadians, I don’t think, who can grumble too loud or long about tax dollars in the face of somebody belting the Log Driver’s Waltz or "stop shaking your eyes!!!". The NFB’s argument winner is its enormous back-catalogue of slightly fusty, incredibly un-slick, completely Canadian and occasionally incredible content. A couple of months ago, they put the entirety of it up on the web, and this week, they’ve made it even more accessible: they’ve launched an iPhone app. It’s incredible.

Download it and install it through iTunes, and you’re presented with a search bar that you can use to peruse 60 years of animation, experimental films, documentaries and all the rest of the lovably idiosyncratic NFB catalogue. Watch on the spot, or hit “Watch Later”, and the film downloads to your phone, for free, and is watchable for a 24 hour period in what I have to say is perfectly great quality. There are a few hiccups evident: I couldn’t get Peter Lynch’s incredible doc Project Grizzly to download, but I was able to download and watch two other favourites: the classic mid-60’s teenage hooligan movie Nobody Waved Goodbye (interesting note: the film was the NFB’s first fiction film; director Don Owen lied and told them he was making a documentary) which downloaded over wifi in less than ten minutes, and Arthur Lipsett’s George-Lucas-inspiring experimental short 21-87. Beyond the other obvious favourites like Richard Condie’s The Big Snit and Cordell Barker’s The Cat Came Back, there’s literally thousands of interesting, original movies, from features down to two minute shorts, that can be downloaded and watched (again, for free (well, excluding uh taxes)) on the bus or at the gym or walking the dog. I’m giddy, it has made our week here at thesubstream. Thanks NFB!