Ontario Motion Picture Bureau

The Ontario Motion Picture Bureau was established by the government of the Canadian province on Ontario in 1917 and was the first state-founded film organization in the world, preceding the Canadian Government Motion Picture Bureau by a year. Its mandate was to carry out “educational work for farmers, school children, factory workers and other classes,” to promote the province and its resources and “to encourage the building of highways and other public works.”^[1]

The Bureau initially did not produce its own films but contracted production from private film companies in Toronto. The films themselves were under the Bureau's editorial control and distributed by the Bureau.^[1]

In 1923, the OMPB acquired its own studio in Trenton, Ontario, previously owned by Adanac Films, and began producing its own educational films distributing 1,500 reels monthly by 1925. These films were mostly screened in churches, schools and community institutions.^[1]

By the late 1920s, the Bureau's films were viewed as having outdated and dull production standards and the Bureau was becoming less relevant and more bureaucratic. The 1934 provincial election brought to power the Liberal government of Mitchell Hepburn who had campaigned on cutting government excess. The Hepburn government targeted the OMPB and it was officially dissolved on October 26, 1934. Its property in Trenton, Ontario was donated to the town as the site of a community hall.^[1]

Films

• Tiny's Troublesome Tooth, early animated film produced by Filmart Motion Pictures for the Ontario Motion Picture Bureau (modern soundtrack added).
• Her Own Fault, 1921 educational film produced for the Bureau on behalf of the Division of Industrial Hygiene of the Ontario Provincial Board of Health to demonstrate the consequences of unhealthy lifestyle choices. The story follows two factory women, Mamie and Eileen, throughout their daily activities. Her Own Fault is an educational film that would have originally been shown in schools, churches and other public venues.
• Transport in the North, 1925 film about life in northern Ontario produced by OMPB's studio in Trenton.

References