Re: NFB of Canada, was: Police actively HELP Hamas supporters ...

On 2025-05-30 8:35 AM, danny burstein wrote:

In <101c0km$3rn78$13@dont-email.me> Rhino <no_offline_contact@example.com> writes:
[big snippeth]
 

Seriously? Do you really believe we prevent our pundits' videos from
being seen outside the country? ;-)

 I'll give it a try.  Again, though, two decades ago
they would NOT send the DVDs to the States and I had
to ask a friend in Ontario, etc.
 

Weird. Who were you trying to buy the DVDs from?
The only analogue that comes to mind is that the Doubleday Science Fiction Book Club, which originally operated on both sides of the border, stopped servicing Canadian customers quite some time ago. I never heard a reason for it.

NOTE: a decade or so earlier the US, in what would
clearly be a First Amendment violation, *blocked*
a couple of their films from crossing the border.
 One was a global warming documentary (don't recall
the specifics) which got someone or another pissed.
 I know there was going to be a battle about it
but wasn't following the situation closely enough
to recall what happened.
>

Perhaps the people who were selling the DVDs were effectively geo-blocked with contractual terms that told them they could only sell in Canada because the US seller was the only one allowed to sell to people resident in the US?

Again, I have no idea if the National Film Board geo-blocks the films
you can see online so I want you to try this: go to
https://www.nfb.ca/channels/exploredocs_new_releases_en/ and click on
one of the films there. It doesn't matter which one, we're just trying
to see if it will play for a user with an American IP address. Let me
know what happens.

 I'll give it a try from one of my other systems when
I have a moment.  This specific one has plenty
of safety/lockdown features...
 

By the way, if you ever get the chance, check out the NFB offices in
Canada. The NFB is headquartered in Montreal and I was there on business
once and had a bit of free time at one point so I went to the NFB
office. I was intrigued to find that you could watch a selection of
films right there in the office. They had special chairs with TV screens
fixed to them and each chair had a separate feed. Each visitor could
watch something different.

 Thanks.  When we were in Toronto pre-Covid there were tours
showing off the Murdoch Mysteries sites, but alas, we
couldn't work it into our schedule.
 

Oh, I almost forgot, I deeply amused a Jewish friend a few years ago
when I found an NFB film on YouTube that was an animated telling of a
Jewish folk tale set in some past century. It was about a Jew somewhere
in Eastern Europe - very possibly Poland - who was setting out on a long
journey on foot. He didn't really know his way to his destination and at
the end of the first day, he decided to go to sleep on the side of the
road but didn't want to forget which way to go the next morning so he
set up his shoes to point in the appropriate direction. Anyway, my
friend knew this story very well and was impressed that it had been filmed.

 Sounds like a character from Chelm...  (I'm not familiar
with that specific story but it sounds like the type
that woudl have been making the rounds...)
>

Bingo! It is indeed a Chelm story.

Out of curiousity, I just tried a couple of YouTube searches - "NFB
Jewish" and "NFB animated" and found all kinds of both films. Unless
they're geo-blocked you may find the documentaries you were looking for.

 Thanks again.
 

--
Rhino