Art as a Catalyst for Global Citizenship: The National Film Board of Canada’s Approach to Societal Challenges
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Abstract
This paper examines the National Film Board of Canada (NFBC) as a model for how publicly funded art advances global citizenship, participatory media, and cultural democracy. Through analysis of NFBC’s interactive documentaries, VR storytelling and counterpublic interventions, the study explores how the institution fosters civic engagement and democratic resistance. Works like Biidaaban: First Light, The Space We Hold, and Bear 71 demonstrate how digital storytelling amplifies marginalised voices, challenges colonial narratives, critiques algorithmic governance, and counters corporate media consolidation. Drawing on cultural policy, counterpublic theory, media studies, and participatory art, the paper argues that public art infrastructure is essential to sustaining alternative media spaces and resisting platform-driven content control. Concepts such as agonistic pluralism, digital sovereignty, and algorithmic resistance frame the NFBC’s interventions into historical memory, environmental ethics and digital governance. By positioning the NFBC as a blueprint for media democratisation, the study highlights the urgency of protecting and expanding publicly funded storytelling in an era of digital privatisation. Ultimately, it contends that state-supported digital art remains critical to counterpublic engagement, historical witnessing and civic participation in evolving media ecosystems.
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