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Human Geography (63)

  1. Available in English Options
5 years old
18 years old
  • 645 Wellington
    645 Wellington
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    Kaveh Nabatian 2002 54 min
    A stone's throw from downtown Montreal, quirky artists, blue-collar workers and unconventional families are being forced to leave their old neighbourhood as high-tech firms move in. Like in so many other cities, the tech companies arrive with the promise of a rosy future--but it's one built on demolitions, evictions and the conversion of low-rent property to high-priced condos.

    This is a portrait of one building and its residents--people like Constanzo 'Fartman' Manna, an eccentric shipper and packer who's headed for Chile to marry the love of his life and bring her back to Montreal; artist Luc Bourbonnais, who is fighting desperately to hold on to the loft that inspires so much of his art; and Cuban émigré Rolando Zambrano, who ran a neighbourhood snack bar for nearly 30 years.

    Shot over a period of six months and set to a pulsing Latin and rock soundtrack, 645 Wellington not only opens a window onto the lives of the building's residents but brings the building itself to life. We come to know the dark hallways, the corners and the doorways. We get to know them well. Just as they are about to change, forever.

    645 Wellington was produced as part of the Reel Diversity Competition for emerging filmmakers of colour. Reel Diversity is a National Film Board of Canada initiative in partnership with CBC Newsworld.
  • 54 Hours
    54 Hours
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    Bruce Alcock  &  Paton Francis 2014 13 min
    This short animation is a remarkably vivid account of the 1914 tragedy in which 132 men were stranded on the ice during a severe snowstorm off the coast of Newfoundland. 78 men froze to death on the pack ice. In the spring of 1914, the last of the wooden seal hunting ships in a steel-dominated industry was the Newfoundland, manned by men from across the province. The ship was unable to reach a seal pack due to its lack of ice-breaking power, and 132 men were ordered off the boat and onto the ice to hunt. The ship had no radio equipment, and the men spent two unbearable nights on the ice. Survivor testimony, striking archival materials, weather visualizations, inventive animation and puppetry are seamlessly blended to recreate this harrowing ordeal.
  • Act of Dishonour
    Act of Dishonour
    Nelofer Pazira 2009 1 h 30 min
    Set in the northern region of Afghanistan, this feature drama tells the story of a young bride-to-be who strays from local customs after befriending an Afghan-Canadian translator. Part lament against injustice, part testament to the spirit of a people who have survived decades of war, this film is a compelling drama in which East and West, love and honour, modernity and custom clash with tragic consequences.
  • Azzel
    Azzel
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    Guy L. Coté 1979 28 min
    This short documentary looks at Azzel, one of the Niger Department of National Education’s first schools for nomads. The film describes the traditional nomadic lifestyle of the Tuareg and the changes brought about by these government-run boarding schools.
  • Atlantic Crossroads
    Atlantic Crossroads
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    Tom Daly 1945 10 min
    This short documentary focuses on Newfoundland's role in WWII. Due to its geographical position, Newfoundland became a central point of activity during the war, housing military air bases and becoming the link between the Allied forces and Europe. In stark contrast with the Depression in the 1930s, this film highlights Newfoundland's opportunities for economic growth during, and after, the war. Part of the Canada Carries On series.
  • Air - Climate
    Air - Climate
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    Michel Barbeau 2000 19 min
    This documentary takes us on a visual tour of Canada's extreme weather and climate. The film is part of the Transit series, which explores Canada's natural landscape, from the humid rainforests of British Columbia, to the desert-like badlands of Alberta; from the frosty Arctic where no trees grow, to the fertile farmland of the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River Region.
  • Abegweit
    Abegweit
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    Serge Morin 1998 1 h 11 min
    A day-to-day record of the construction of the Confederation Bridge linking Prince Edward Island to the mainland, Abegweit reveals some of the innovations that made this mammoth project one of the most impressive engineering feats in Canadian history.

    The film also gives a voice to the people affected by the bridge--construction workers happy to have the work and proud to be part of the project, ferry employees sad about losing their jobs and their seagoing family, islanders whose lives will be forever changed by the fixed link, and fishermen worried about the impact it will have on the environment and their livelihood. It is a stunning meeting of technology, politics, high finance and intense emotions.
  • Black and White in South Africa
    Black and White in South Africa
    John Howe  &  Ronald Dick 1957 29 min
    This 1957 documentary short offers an analysis of South Africa's acute race problem, an issue that causes dissension not only within its borders but within the Commonwealth and beyond. In South Africa, a country of 14 million people, 4 out of 5 people are black. The film gives a dispassionate appraisal of the motivations behind the policy of apartheid and of whether the practice of segregation provides a satisfactory, long-term solution.
  • Beautiful Lennard Island
    Beautiful Lennard Island
    Beverly Shaffer 1977 23 min
    This short documentary introduces us to Lennard Island, a tiny island near Tofino, British Columbia, and the family of 4 who are its sole occupants. There we meet the lightkeeper’s son, Steven Thomas Holland, age 10, and his father, mother and brother. A gracious host and great fan of his island home, the boy takes us on a tour and dispels any ideas that living in isolation might be boring. This film is part of the Children of Canada series.
  • Cities
    Cities
    Lillian Chan 2020 3 min
    Designer Bruce Mau views the COVID-19 pandemic as a short-term crisis in a long-term trend toward positive development. He dares us to abandon our toxic lifestyle habits and urges us toward bolder urban design.
  • Calliope
    Calliope
    Tony Ianzelo 1980 2 min
    A vignette on the travelling calliope (also known as steam organ), a musical instrument that produces sound by sending steam through large locomotive whistles.
  • China Mission: The Chester Ronning Story
    China Mission: The Chester Ronning Story
    Tom Radford 1980 57 min
    Tom Radford's documentary chronicles the life of Chester Ronning, best remembered for his close and longstanding relationship with China. Over the course of his life, Ronning worked as a cowboy, ambassador, college president, missionary and a member of the Alberta legislature. But throughout all of his careers, his lifelong ambition was to explain China to the western world. His story is a rare example of the meeting of East and West in a compassionate, remarkable man.
  • The Chairmaker and the Boys
    The Chairmaker and the Boys
    1959 20 min
    This short fictional film evokes rural life in Cape Breton’s Margaree Valley, with its rich colours, bright sunshine, and crystal-clear streams. The film tells the story of a young boy and his grandfather, a carpenter with a hearing impairment. The young boy frolics joyfully in the rural landscape, but eventually he’ll need to learn a lesson from his grandfather about safety, responsibility, and maturity. The film features original music by Maurice Blackburn, one of Canada’s foremost composers.
  • The Danish Poet
    The Danish Poet
    Torill Kove 2006 14 min
    This short animation follows Kasper, a poet whose creative well has run dry, on a holiday to Norway to meet the famous writer Sigrid Undset. Kasper attempts to answer some pretty big questions: can we trace the chain of events that leads to our own birth? Is our existence just coincidence? Do little things matter? As Kasper's quest for inspiration unfolds, it appears that a spell of bad weather, an angry dog, slippery barn planks, a careless postman, hungry goats and other seemingly unrelated factors might play important roles in the big scheme of things after all.
  • A Drop in the Ocean
    A Drop in the Ocean
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    Lise Éthier 2002 48 min
    When Doctors without Borders, the humanitarian medical aid agency, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1999, Dr. Claudette Picard was in Liberia. Her first mission with the agency had begun in this small country of West Africa six years before. In the meantime, she had practised medicine in other wartorn countries such as Zaire and Afghanistan, always in extremely hazardous conditions.

    What impels women and men like Dr. Picard to leave their easy lives behind and go off to do what little they can to alleviate human suffering? Whatever the motivation, the doctors are in the field, providing medical care and helping to draw attention to distant places often forgotten by the world's media. Places like Harper, a small town in Liberia devastated by a decade of civil war. This is where we follow Dr. Picard on her rounds. With her halting English, her comforting presence and a few scarce drugs, she sometimes manages to do the impossible. But not always...

    Some subtitles.
  • Epilogue
    Epilogue
    William Pettigrew 1971 15 min
    This film employs a multi-image technique to contrast scenes of natural grandeur--mountains, forests, and wildflowers filmed in Canada's national parks--with images of the polluted rivers and countryside that result from the heedless exploitation of the environment. Without words.
  • Exile - A Myth Unearthed
    Exile - A Myth Unearthed
    Ilan Ziv 2012 1 h 37 min
    This feature documentary looks at new evidence that suggests the majority of the Jewish people may not have been exiled following the fall of Jerusalem in 70 AD. Travelling from Galilee to Jerusalem and the catacombs of Rome, the film asks us to rethink our ideas about an event that has played a critical role in the Christian and Jewish traditions.
  • Exile - A Myth Unearthed (BBC Version)
    Exile - A Myth Unearthed (BBC Version)
    Ilan Ziv 2013 59 min
    It has been depicted in artwork and lamented in poetry and prayer for nearly 2,000 years: the exile of the Jewish people from their homeland in the first century AD, following the destruction of the Second Temple in Jerusalem.

    But what if the exile never happened?

    That is the central, provocative question of Exile: A Myth Unearthed, a documentary that looks at the exile through the lenses of archaeology, history, myth and religion, asking what it means for our understanding of history and the contemporary struggle over land in the Middle East.

    Since 1985, teams of archaeologists have been painstakingly unearthing artifacts from the ancient town of Sepphoris, in Galilee. Their findings are revolutionizing our knowledge of Jewish history.

    Exile travels from Sepphoris to Masada, from Jerusalem to the catacombs of Rome, and features interviews with leading historians and archaeologists. Throughout the film we also follow a group of tourists visiting sites in the Holy Land and hear the traditional interpretation of events such as the siege of Masada—an interpretation which stands in sharp contrast to recent evidence.

    The issues raised in Exile are of more than passing historical interest. The myth of exile is an essential narrative in Middle Eastern and European history, and of critical importance to both Christian and Jewish theology. And the possibility that many Jews, such as those of Sepphoris, simply remained where they lived, raises uncomfortable questions. Could some Palestinians actually be their descendants?
  • Grassroots in Dry Lands
    Grassroots in Dry Lands
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    Helene Klodawsky 2015 1 h 29 min
    Grassroots in Dry Lands tells the story of three unconventional social workers united by a common vision that transcends the antagonisms between their countries. Nuha, from Nablus (Occupied Palestinian Territories), Talal, from East Amman (Jordan), and Amit, from Sderot (Israel) are empowering some of the region’s most disenfranchised, war-scarred communities in an effort to build a just and civil society.
  • The Global Struggle for Food
    The Global Struggle for Food
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    1961 28 min
    A progress report on efforts to find new ways of feeding the Earth's swelling population. Water control, land redistribution and agricultural advances of all kinds are shown as examples of gains being made to stem the tide of hunger.
  • A House on the Prairie
    A House on the Prairie
    Ron Bashford  &  Bob Lower 1978 17 min
    This documentary describes the unfortunate legacy of the lone house on the prairie, an example of a dwelling entirely unsuited for the harsh winter or summer. We meet some builders and home owners experimenting with designs that are more energy efficient, such as the dome, the underground house and a ranch with wind, solar energy and methane gas from animal waste.
  • Hunters and Bombers
    Hunters and Bombers
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    Hugh Brody  &  Nigel Markham 1991 53 min
    The hunters are the Innu people and the bombers are the air forces of several NATO countries, which conduct low-level flights over the Innu's hunting terrain. The impact of the jets is hotly debated by peace groups, Indigenous people, environmentalists and the military. But what is often overlooked are the many complex changes underway in Innu society, as social and technological changes confront a traditional hunting culture.
  • Homesteading on the Prairies
    Homesteading on the Prairies
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    Eva Szasz 1995 11 min
    Set in Manitoba in the 1890s, the story traces an Ontario farm family as they move west in search of cheap land. They experience travel on the recently completed CPR, build a sod house, battle a prairie fire and celebrate their first harvest.
  • Home to the Land
    Home to the Land
    Stanley Jackson 1944 21 min
    This documentary from 1945 explains The Veteran's Land Act, which provided for low-cost loans to veterans who wished to purchase properties and re-establish themselves in Canada after the war. The loans were for properties ranging from town lots to full-scale farms. The Act also provided aid in purchasing farm machinery, fishing boats, building materials and livestock. Produced by the NFB for the Canadian Department of Veterans Affairs.
  • Henry Settles in Upper Canada
    Henry Settles in Upper Canada
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    Eva Szasz 1995 10 min
    After a long, hard ocean voyage across the Atlantic, twelve-year-old Henry and his mother arrive in Upper Canada. Uncle Ned meets them and takes them to rest up. Homesick, Henry takes a turn around the village and discovers what village life is like in a well-established farming community. He soon settles in and brings some good news to his mother.
  • In the Labyrinth
    In the Labyrinth
    Roman Kroitor Colin Low , … 1979 21 min
    A film without commentary in which multiple images, sometimes complementary, sometimes contrasting, draw the viewer through the different stages of a labyrinth. The tone of the film moves from great joy to wrenching sorrow; from stark simplicity to ceremonial pomp. It is life as it is lived by the people of the world, each one, as the film suggests, in a personal labyrinth.

    In the Labyrinth was first released as a multi-screen presentation for Chamber III of the Labyrinth at Expo 67. These separate images were integrated into a single strand of film, using a "five-on-one" cinematic technique.
  • "I Just Didn't Want to Die": The 1914 Newfoundland Sealing Disaster
    "I Just Didn't Want to Die": The 1914 Newfoundland Sealing Disaster
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    Joe MacDonald 1991 19 min
    In March 1914, the Newfoundland set sail from Wesleyville, taking 132 men out sealing. Miles from shore, the ship got stuck in the ice so the men went over the side to walk to the sealing ground. When a terrible storm struck, they were stranded. It took rescuers 3 days to arrive; by then, 78 men were dead and another 9 missing. This tragic story is told through the words of men who were there and the haunting prints of David Blackwood.
  • In Pursuit of Peace
    In Pursuit of Peace
    Garry Beitel 2015 1 h 24 min
    In Pursuit of Peace makes the case for unarmed civilian peacemaking and mediation as a response to violent international conflict. We follow four Canadian peacemakers as they take us inside the drama of their work in some of the world’s hottest conflict zones: land disputes in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the civil war in South Sudan, IDP camps with displaced minorities in Kurdistan in Northern Iraq.
  • I Was a Child of Holocaust Survivors
    I Was a Child of Holocaust Survivors
    Ann Marie Fleming 2010 15 min
    This short animation is director Ann Marie Fleming’s animated adaptation of Bernice Eisenstein’s acclaimed illustrated memoir. Using the healing power of humour, the film probes the taboos around a very particular second-hand trauma, leading us to a more universal understanding of human experience. The film sensitively explores identity and loss through the audacious proposition that the Holocaust is addictive and defining.
  • Julie O'Brien
    Julie O'Brien
    Beverly Shaffer 1981 18 min
    This short film depicts Newfoundland’s “old times” as seen by Julie O’Brien, an 11-year-old living in Tors Cove. Told in the first person with cutaway shots to the girl’s many activities, the film illustrates the way traditions are maintained, remembered and evolved. This film is part of the Children of Canada series.