NFB Mediatheque

ok so I come here at least once a month and I’m yet to write them a review.
they have a partnership with the WorldWideShort Film Festival that allows them to screen best short movies once a month on wednesday.
they also have great workshops on animation and other cinema related arts for adults and kids.
also huge library of canadian movies with the ability to watch them right at the NFB (space shuttle looking seats look very comfortable)
and the staff is always friendly and welcoming!

The NFB Mediatheque is one of two such theatres in Canada — the second located in Montréal — and features an enormous collection of animated shorts and documentaries.
Walk inside and seat yourself in a personal theatre; there are a dozen padded booths to squeeze into, where you and a friend can spend hours browsing through a plethora of Canadian-​produced flicks. Funded by your precious tax dollars, the Mediatheque is free; in the past, they used to charge $ 2 per individual.
If you’re not sure what to watch, ‘The Snit’ and ‘Getting Started’ are two highly recommended classics from Manitoba-​born animator Richard Condie. As well, ‘The Sweater’ is Roch Carrier’s beloved children’s story come to life thanks to Sheldon Cohen; the endearing story about a young Québécois boy — a die-​hard Maurice Richard idol — who is mistakenly sent a Toronto Maple Leaf sweater has been capturing the hearts of young and old since it was produced in 1980.
Considering its central location, the Mediatheque is a great place to rest your feet and enjoy air conditioning while being entertained. And yet it boggles my mind that people still mindlessly wander across the street to watch drivel on a giant screen, completely oblivious to this fantastic secret.
Another true Canadian gem that makes me proud to live in Toronto.

100’s of movies, with some that go way back. It’s remarkably inexpensive, and you can go to film-​making classes for about $ 5 at times. The movies range from hard to watch to some pretty cool items.
Everyone there is young and pretty excited about what they’re doing. The individual viewing booths are pretty cool, and let you go through a ton of movies at your own pace.
If you like movies, it’s definitely worth a visit just to skim the collection, and see some cool Canadiana-​type stuff too… You know, with the kind of flute intro ‘70s stuff describing the wonders of nature and all. You know.

When autumn hits and it becomes not-​so-​nice outside, my mind starts wandering back to the days of high school.
Now, the mere thought of high school makes me barf, but the one spew-​free memory was of my high school history teacher, Mr. Williamson. He was a quirky fellow and subsisted not only on a diet of peanut butter and pickle sandwiches, but also a library of NFB documentaries and animated shorts and was proud of it. His class was an escape from the rest of the high school curriculum… and that’s kind of how I view a trip to the Mediatheque… minus the high school curriculum bit.
The collection of NFB shorts and full-​featured films, including some of my faves Manufactured Landscapes and The Magical Life of Long Tack Sam, can be viewed for $ 2 all day, or $ 12 for unlimited viewings all year. (And sometimes free for an hour if you walk in, play dumb, and the counter dude feels sorry for you because it was raining outside and you just needed a break. Ahem.)
Pssst: Try to grab some of the stations pointing against the wall. Window glare is a problem. The place is also seriously flawed sound-​wise, and if there are yappy school groups in the room, you may as well just go up the street and grab a coffee.