French-speaking communities in New Brunswick will have access to francophone short films, features and documentaries, thanks to the National Film Board, which is launching a new film distribution initiative in the area.

The e-cinema pilot project — announced at the recent Festival international du cinéma francophone en Acadie in Moncton — will give moviegoers in small communities access to screenings of NFB and other films by setting up servers, projectors, or HD TV sets in libraries, art galleries and university campuses.

‘The program will allow [programmers] in each of the communities to select films from a bank of titles,’ NFB assistant commissioner Claude Joli-Coeur tells Playback Daily, noting it will be free of charge.

Joli-Coeur says the equipment set up by the NFB can also be used by programmers to show other films, while their only obligation is to organize a weekly NFB-focused event.

‘If the program is successful, our plan would be to establish those kinds of community theaters across Canada,’ he says.

The three-year program will be implemented in five Acadian towns, including Moncton, Kedgwick, Bouctouche, Caraquet and Edmundston, starting in January.