$17M Ottawa building to preserve nitrate film
Last Updated: Tuesday, August 4, 2009 | 3:24 PM ET
CBC News
Library and Archives Canada has begun construction on a new storage facility for Canada's film heritage.
The $17-million project in west Ottawa will include a building to store 5,000 movies made using nitrate-based film and 600,000 photo negatives dating back to 1912.
The federal government awarded the construction contract for the 12,700-square-foot facility to Ottawa-based Laurin Group last week. A design by Ottawa-based Schoeler & Heaton Architects Inc. was approved in 2005.
All of the historic and archival works from 1890 to 1950 are on nitrate-based film, including one of Canada's earliest dramas, Back to God's Country.
Canada has been at risk of losing this history because the current storage building is inadequate, according to Mario Gasperetti at Library and Archives Canada.
"The building is not up to international conservation standards," he told CBC News, speaking in French. "Here, the strong rooms are kept at 10 C, but they should be maintained at 6 C. The lower temperature slows the decomposition of the film chemicals."
Nitrate-based cellulose film has the potential to combust if storage temperatures are too high.
The new building will have 22 individual "vaults" measuring about 1.8 metres across by 4.2 metres deep.
Michel Prévost, head archivist at University of Otttawa, says it is increasingly rare to find heritage film in good condition.
"There are many works that you could store [in this facility]," he said. "When you realize that there is a lot of nitrate-based film that has already disappeared, it's a great loss to our heritage."
He welcomed news that the project is going ahead but said the federal government has been slow in awarding the necessary financing.
The building is expected to be ready in a year. The current site, built in the 1940s on the Rockcliffe Air Base, is being turned over to the Canada Lands Corp. for future redevelopment.
With files from Radio-Canada's Louis Blouin
