The Commissioners
2009 · 7m · Canada
Directed by Philippe Baylaucq
Genres: documentary, essay film
Tones: contemplative
For the NFB's 70th anniversary, five former commissioners spanning 1975 to 2006 reflect on leading the institution, converging on the creative freedom and authenticity of vision it gave filmmakers.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
Everyone wants to hear the institutional folklore, but Baylaucq sidesteps the obvious drama—no conflict, no revisionism, just five voices in a room agreeing about artistic freedom. It's almost aggressively boring, which makes it weirdly fascinating as an anti-documentary.
A masterclass in essay-film restraint: five commissioners become a single meditation on institutional stewardship across three decades, their reflections woven into a formal argument about creative autonomy that only works because the editing refuses to sensationalize or interrupt. This is how you honor a legacy without vanity.
The entire film hinges on one decision—letting the commissioners' voices layer and overlap rather than cleanly separate them—which collapses the archive into something alive and present, turning what could've been five talking heads into a chorus.