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The Globe and Mail — April 2025
'Expertise is disappearing': How Canadian film archives are fighting to save nearly forgotten culturewords by eric veillette
When the Cinémathèque Québécoise in Montreal was offered the video archives of Québécois television channel Musique Plus, Nicolas Dulac and his acquisitions team reluctantly turned it down.
On offer were tens of thousands of magnetic videocassettes of shows aired from 1986 to 2019: CD review segments, in-studio band performances and thousands of music videos among them. Critics called the decision to not take the material elitist, alleging the Cinémathèque deemed the content too popular or low-brow. But that was not the case, Dulac says. They simply could not handle a collection that large.
“We would love to preserve everything, all of cinema, all of television made in Quebec,” he says. It was turned down for pragmatic reasons: costs, resources and space – concerns for any film archive.
Founded in 1963, the Cinémathèque’s storage facility in Boucherville, Que., is nearly at capacity, housing more than 480,000 items, over 70,000 of which are film and video elements. It is one of several Canadian institutions dedicated to preserving and providing access to Canada and Quebec‘s film heritage, alongside TIFF’s Film Reference Library, Library and Archives Canada, the National Film Board of Canada, the University of Toronto‘s Media Commons and others.
The preservation of Canada’s audio-visual history relies on these archives, but those who run them say they are struggling with a lack of funding, resources and postsecondary programs to bring in new archivists.
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![Christina Stewart, Assistant Media Archivist at University of Toronto Media Commons, is pictured in their cold storage vault in Toronto on April 17, 2025. Canadian film archives are working to safeguard film heritage, despite resource challenges. (Laura P]()
Christina Stewart, Assistant Media Archivist at University of Toronto Media Commons, is pictured in their cold storage vault
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![The cold storage vault at University of Toronto Media Commons in Toronto is pictured on April 17, 2025. Canadian film archives are working to safeguard film heritage, despite resource challenges. (Laura Proctor/The Globe and Mail)]()
Film reels are stored inside the cold storage vault at University of Toronto Media Commons
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![Christina Stewart, Assistant Media Archivist at University of Toronto Media Commons, shows a reel of film shot by the late Ed “Fast Eddy” Vaar, a freelance Toronto-based cinematographer and cameraman for the CBC, in Toronto on April 17, 2025. Canadian fil]()
Christina Stewart, Assistant Media Archivist at University of Toronto Media Commons, shows a reel of film shot by the late Ed “Fast Eddy” Vaar, a freelance Toronto-based cinematographer and cameraman for the CBC.
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![35mm film of David Cronenberg’s “Crash” is pictured at University of Toronto Media Commons in Toronto on April 17, 2025. Canadian film archives are working to safeguard film heritage, despite resource challenges. (Laura Proctor/The Globe and Mail)]()
The 35mm film of David Cronenberg’s “Crash”
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![Christina Stewart, Assistant Media Archivist at University of Toronto Media Commons, looks at 35mm film of David Cronenberg’s “Crash,” in Toronto on April 17, 2025. Canadian film archives are working to safeguard film heritage, despite resource challenges]()
Christina Stewart, Assistant Media Archivist at University of Toronto Media Commons, looks at 35mm film of David Cronenberg’s “Crash"
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![Christina Stewart, Assistant Media Archivist at University of Toronto Media Commons, looks at 35mm film of David Cronenberg’s “Crash,” in Toronto on April 17, 2025. Canadian film archives are working to safeguard film heritage, despite resource challenges]()
Christina Stewart, Assistant Media Archivist at University of Toronto Media Commons, looks at 35mm film of David Cronenberg’s “Crash"
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![Boxes of footage shot by the late Ed “Fast Eddy” Vaar, a freelance Toronto-based cinematographer and cameraman for the CBC, sit in the acclimatization room at University of Toronto Media Commons in Toronto on April 17, 2025. Canadian film archives are wor]()
Boxes of footage shot by the late Ed “Fast Eddy” Vaar, a freelance Toronto-based cinematographer and cameraman for the CBC, sit in the acclimatization room at University of Toronto Media Commons
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![Old film carrying cases containing Italian films sit in the acclimatization room at University of Toronto Media Commons in Toronto on April 17, 2025. Canadian film archives are working to safeguard film heritage, despite resource challenges. (Laura Procto]()
Old film carrying cases containing Italian films sit in the acclimatization room at University of Toronto Media Commons
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![Christina Stewart, Assistant Media Archivist at University of Toronto Media Commons, looks at 35mm film of David Cronenberg’s “Crash,” in Toronto on April 17, 2025. Canadian film archives are working to safeguard film heritage, despite resource challenges]()
Christina Stewart, Assistant Media Archivist at University of Toronto Media Commons, looks at 35mm film of David Cronenberg’s “Crash"
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![The cold storage vault at University of Toronto Media Commons in Toronto is pictured on April 17, 2025. Canadian film archives are working to safeguard film heritage, despite resource challenges. (Laura Proctor/The Globe and Mail)]()
Film reels are stored inside the cold storage vault at University of Toronto Media Commons
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![Film reels are shelved inside the cold storage vault at University of Toronto Media Commons in Toronto on April 17, 2025. Canadian film archives are working to safeguard film heritage, despite resource challenges. (Laura Proctor/The Globe and Mail)]()
Film reels are shelved inside the cold storage vault at University of Toronto Media Commons
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![Christina Stewart, Assistant Media Archivist at University of Toronto Media Commons, is pictured in their cold storage vault in Toronto on April 17, 2025. Canadian film archives are working to safeguard film heritage, despite resource challenges. (Laura P]()
Christina Stewart, Assistant Media Archivist at University of Toronto Media Commons, is pictured in their cold storage vault
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![Christina Stewart, Assistant Media Archivist at University of Toronto Media Commons, shows the film that’s housed in their cold storage vault in Toronto on April 17, 2025. Canadian film archives are working to safeguard film heritage, despite resource cha]()
Christina Stewart, Assistant Media Archivist at University of Toronto Media Commons, shows the film that’s housed in their cold storage vault
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![Film reels sit in rows in the cold storage vault at University of Toronto Media Commons in Toronto on April 17, 2025. Canadian film archives are working to safeguard film heritage, despite resource challenges. (Laura Proctor/The Globe and Mail)]()
Film reels sit in rows in the cold storage vault at University of Toronto Media Commons
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![Film reels are stacked inside the cold storage vault at University of Toronto Media Commons in Toronto on April 17, 2025. Canadian film archives are working to safeguard film heritage, despite resource challenges. (Laura Proctor/The Globe and Mail)]()
Film reels are stored inside the cold storage vault at University of Toronto Media Commons
