Reporters got a sneak peek at the National Film Board’s headquarters in advance of a public open house the agency is set to host. It will likely be one of the last times people will take a look inside the board’s 60-year-old home before the board moves downtown.
The board’s current home, which is along Highway 40, is being upgraded to a new $125-million site on Bleury Street in the Quartier des Spectacles.
The original was put there because the board needed space on the fringes of town, it was close to a major highway, and at the time, it was far from a population centre at a time when film used dangerous chemicals in production.
“Basically, we’re rebuilding everything in our new building, a building of the 21st century,” said Claude Joli-Coeur, the board’s chairperson.
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The $125-million site at the Quartier des Spectacles fits among the tall buildings downtown, with an edgy steel-and-glass appearance. But moving in from the low-slung current headquarters will be bittersweet, producer Kat Boulu told Global News.
“Personally, what I’ll miss about this place is that I feel the history every day. I feel that this is the birthplace of documentary, and since I work in the documentary studio, it feeds me and the people I work with every day,” she said. The board is especially proud of being a “one-stop-shop” for film production while being a non-commercial organization.
The NFB is scheduled to move into its new downtown Montreal location in May of 2019.
The public open house of the Ville St-Laurent location will take place from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 30. It will be the first open house held at the board in about 30 years.
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