Two newish websites for those of you who, like me, are documentary film fans.

The first is from the august National Film Board of Canada. Anyone knowledgable about documentary film at all will immediately know the importance of the NFBC in funding and promoting documentary filmmaking since the 1940s. So you will definitely want to explore this new beta site that lets you watch full-length films from their archives online. And not just documentaries, there are also animated films (some of the best short subject animations ever have been NFBC films) and short dramatic films. Presently there are over 400 films you can view, including this 1941 film which was the first documentary to ever win an Academy Award, the experimental animations of Norman McLaren, and some curated compilations of various films about life in Canada. Hours and hours of stuff to watch. (via)

The second is also a beta site. It’s called SnagFilms, and not only can you watch their selection of 225 documentaries (most of them very recent films), you can also embed the films on any website using a widget they supply (rather like the way you can embed YouTube clips). Their catalog includes National Geographic documentaries, NOVA episodes from PBS, some ABC News documentaries, and lots of indie films. Here, for example, is a film called “Paper Clips”, about a group of children who collected 6 million paper clips as a project to help them understand the extent of the Holocaust.:

Embedded video isn’t all that new at this stage, but the idea of helping to garner attention for documentary films that often get little public notice is very appealing.