Gender-based analysis plus (GBA Plus)
General information: Institutional GBA Plus capacity
Governance
As a small organization, the NFB is integrating GBA+ into its very governance structure, with its Strategic Planning and Government Relations (SPGR) team assuming responsibility for the GBA+ process. Three employees have been assigned (on a part-time basis) to the task of integrating GBA+ into the NFB’s decision-making processes, in addition to fulfilling an advisory role and overseeing monitoring and accountability. These staff are supported in the implementation of GBA Plus by the Senior Advisor, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion, and by the Director of Indigenous Relations and Community Engagement.
In 2024–2025, as part of the process of preparing its new Strategic Plan, the NFB will be consulting industry partners, including filmmakers and producers from underrepresented groups. The purpose of these consultations will be to help define the NFB’s new vision of itself as it participates actively in the modernization of the audiovisual sector.
Capacity
In February 2021, the NFB released an Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Plan that aimed to drive sustainable and meaningful change and make the NFB an egalitarian, open and diverse organization. In 2024, the NFB also re-evaluated the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion champion’s role within the organization. As a result, this position has evolved into the position of Senior Advisor, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion. The incumbent of this position serves as a consultant and agent of change to support the NFB’s transformation efforts to ensure that EDI remains a priority within the organization.
Highlights of GBA Plus results reporting by program
Audiovisual Programming and Production
This program collects enough data to enable it to monitor and/or report program impacts by gender and diversity (GBA Plus). In 2023, recognizing that it needed additional information to ensure equitable representation of voices that had for too long been marginalized, underrepresented and distorted in the film industry, the NFB introduced a self-identification questionnaire to gather information on the community of creators and creation partners. In addition to the data that the NFB had already been gathering on gender, membership in official-language minority communities and Indigenous status, this questionnaire now gathers information on racial or ethnic identity, disability, gender expression and membership in the 2SLGBTQI+ community. The questionnaire is designed to facilitate planning and evaluation of the NFB’s measures and initiatives to fulfil its commitments regarding equitable representation of Canadian diversity, as presented in its EDI Plan and its Indigenous Action Plan. The NFB can thus determine what percentage of the cost of works now in production is being allocated to works by members of these groups. These data are incorporated into the NFB’s Departmental Results Framework and its strategy for measuring the performance of its equity, diversity and inclusion initiatives.
Distribution of works and audience engagement
The NFB compiles statistics on general audience numbers by market, interactions with online audiences, and participation in festivals promoting gender equity and diversity. The NFB does not collect disaggregated data in relation to GBA+ from its audiences. Some analyses of the NFB’s current media-placement campaigns provide an understanding of the target audience by classifying the results by geographic origin, age and sex. But it is not currently possible to monitor the impact of these campaigns on the NFB’s online distribution. By revising the procedures we use to monitor our marketing campaigns and by using Google Analytics, we will be able to monitor these campaigns more effectively, improve their effectiveness and ensure that Canadians see and hear a diversity of voices and stories coming from every part of the country.
One important way that the NFB promotes works representative of Canada’s diversity is through the NFB Education portal. A reliable source of teaching content and a safe space for young Canadians, this portal offers innovative, relevant content in both official languages. By continuing to develop new resources, themed channels, mini-lessons and learning programs, the NFB Education portal remains an important learning destination for students and education professionals, with whom the NFB has been working for over 40 years.
To ensure inclusive results when it comes to accessibility of works and interactions with audiences, on its Education portal and through other platforms or other media, the NFB will continue to distribute audiovisual works that reflect the full richness of the realities of Canadians and, in particular, those from underrepresented groups: members of the 2SLGBTQI+ community, people from racialized and diverse backgrounds, members of Indigenous communities, women, and people with disabilities.
Promotion of works and NFB outreach
For some years now, the NFB has been measuring the percentage of awards going to works created by women and Indigenous creators, as well as the coverage of these works in the national and international media. With the introduction of its self-identification form, the NFB will now also be able to determine the percentage of awards going to works by filmmakers from groups that have been underrepresented because of their racial or ethnic identity, disability, gender expression or membership in the 2SLGBTQI+ community.
In 2024–2025, the NFB will continue to partner with various festivals and organizations to promote audiovisual works reflecting the realities, experiences and perspectives of the people of Canada, in particular those who are underrepresented in the media landscape (Indigenous people, women, people with disabilities, racialized and diverse cultural groups, and the 2SLGBTQI+ community), to ensure these important Canadian stories are seen and heard.
Preservation, conservation and digitization of works
This program sets out to preserve, digitize and restore works in the National Film Board’s collection, in keeping with the NFB’s digitization plan for audiovisual materials, to secure their longevity and availability for Canadians today and in the future, as well as to provide access to a wide range of high-quality archive shots to the audiovisual industry. As this program is technical in nature, it does not collect sufficient data to enable it to monitor and/or report program impacts by gender and diversity.
As the caretaker of one of the world’s largest collections of films by and about Indigenous people, the NFB recognizes that it has the responsibility to preserve, organize and contextualize this collection and make it accessible to audiences in a variety of contexts. However, as specifically regards archives, excerpts and photographs representing Indigenous participants, the NFB has discontinued granting licences to clients who do not identify as Indigenous, until NFB Archives has reviewed and updated its archiving protocols in collaboration with Canada’s Indigenous communities and the NFB’s Indigenous Advisory Committee, and in accordance with the NFB’s Indigenous Action Plan, the protocols developed by imagineNATIVE, and the guidelines provided by the Indigenous Screen Office.
In 2022, the NFB conservation team’s expertise led to a special partnership with the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation. Under this partnership, the NFB is converting the videos of Survivors’ statements and other original audiovisual content recorded at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission hearings into formats suitable for archiving and for posting on the web. In total, some 7,000 statements and more than 1,500 hours of content will be preserved through this project.