22 layoffs as NFB struggles to adopt new technology

The National Film Board has laid off 22 people, most of them in Montreal, as it struggles to adapt to shrinking resources and a shift to new media.

The layoffs, to take effect July 5, were announced in-house last week.

NFB spokeswoman Lily Robert said the NFB has frozen hiring since January, and some of the people affected may have the opportunity to move into other jobs.

Among those laid off are Paul Cowan, who directed Westray, about the mine disaster, and The Kid Who Couldn't Miss, a docudrama about war hero Billy Bishop, and Beverly Shaffer, who won an Oscar for I'll Find a Way, part of her series about the children of Canada.

The two veteran documentary makers are the last of the in-house filmmakers at the NFB, the French filmmakers having been laid off in 2005.

"They were here under the old studio system where we had filmmakers in-house," Robert told CBC News. "Our relationship with them is not over. Paul Cowan will finish the film he is working on and then they will have the opportunity to work with us again, but also with other producers."

Filmmakers working with the NFB are now independents who strike deals with NFB producers over individual projects, she said, adding that this new method of working helps the board stretch resources.

The main reason people had to be laid off is financial, she said.

"The NFB has had the same budget since 1995. For the past 13 years, it has not been indexed to the cost of living and, as you can imagine, our costs have risen," Robert said.

Out of an annual budget of $70 million $64 million from Ottawa the NFB has to cut about $2.5 million, she said.

At the same time, NFB chair Tom Perlmutter has released a five-year strategic plan that asks the film board to, among other objectives, engage more emerging filmmakers and implement an ambitious digital program.

There has been a major capital investment in digitization, Robert said, though she could not say how much had been spent. The NFB aims to preserve its historic collections in digital format, is experimenting with new media and releasing all new films across several platforms.

"It actually makes our films more accessible," Robert said.

Among the digitization projects is a new area of the NFB website that makes footage available for a fee to other filmmakers.

Roberts admits that getting more emerging voices on film with a reduced budget is "a challenge we are facing."

She says no further layoffs are anticipated this year.