Out of the Vault

Newly unearthed gems from our archives

Dwarf Apple
1955 6 min
Julian Biggs interviews Dr. Don Fisher, head of pomology at the Summerland Experimental Farm in the Okanagan Valley, British Columbia. Dr. Fisher describes the cultivation and maintenance of several strains of the dwarf apple tree.
The Great Departure
Kevin Papatie 2008 5 min

For the sake of his children, in 2001 an Algonquin father went back to school. Now, encouraged by his friends in the Kitcisakik community, he is going on to CEGEP.

Since 2004, Wapikoni Mobile has been giving Indigenous youth the opportunity to speak out using video and music. This short film was made with the guidance of these travelling studios and is part of the 2007 Selection - Wapikoni Mobile DVD.
Renaissance
Wapikoni mobile team 2008 8 min
Returning to the Pikogan reserve to give birth to her first child, Sybèle wonders how to give her son a better life than hers while ensuring he stays connected to the Algonquin community.

Since 2004, Wapikoni Mobile has been giving young Aboriginals the opportunity to speak out using video and music. This short film was made with the guidance of these travelling studios and is part of the 2007 Selection - Wapikoni Mobile DVD.
A Mother's Dream
Cherilyn Papatie 2007 6 min
Accompanied by her kokom (grandmother), an Algonquin mother of the Kitcisakik community fulfils her dream of three weeks: holds her children and takes them to the fair.

Since 2004, Wapikoni Mobile has been giving young Aboriginals the opportunity to speak out using video and music. This short documentary was made with the guidance of these travelling studios and is part of the 2007 Selection - Wapikoni Mobile DVD.
Fighter
Erica Lepage 2007 9 min
After being attacked, a young Mohawk woman decides to overcome her fear and do what she loves, namely box. Story of a Kanesatake fighter out to prove she?s the strongest.

Since 2004, Wapikoni Mobile has been giving young Aboriginals the opportunity to speak out using video and music. This short film was made with the guidance of these travelling studios and is part of the 2007 Selection - Wapikoni Mobile DVD.
The City
Abraham Côté 2007 7 min
In the picturesque setting of the Kitigan Zibi community, an Algonquin and his family try to flee before the White people?s sprawling city takes over their territory.

Since 2004, Wapikoni Mobile has been giving young Aboriginals the opportunity to speak out using video and music. This short film was made with the guidance of these travelling studios and is part of the 2007 Selection - Wapikoni Mobile DVD.
Future Block
Kevin McCracken 1987 10 min
An animated film about the appropriateness of new technology and its effects on people. The case in point revolves around a bank whose human tellers find themselves unemployed when they are replaced by electronic tellers. A mild-mannered client of the bank is overwhelmed and humiliated by his first encounter with the dispassionate computer. Conventional cel animation is contrasted with computer-generated images to heighten the satire in this look at the problems that can arise when technology ignores human needs.
A Bird City
1919 5 min
A bird sanctuary near Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan is shown. Here in their native haunts are the gull, the heron, the tern, and many other birds as they are in their everyday life. Nesting, mating, swimming and flying, all are shown here in a rare picture.
Fringe Benefits
Kaj Pindal 1967 20 s
A clip to discourage smoking.
Algonquin Waters
1933 11 min
A film trip to Algonquin Park in the highlands of Ontario, famed for its magnificent forests, waterways, and its exceptional trout fishing.
The Lost Children
Dalhya Newashish 2007 10 min
Uprooted at age 5 or 6 to study in White schools, the children of the Wemotaci community are now scarred adults trying to recover their Atikamekw identity.

Since 2004, Wapikoni Mobile has been giving young Aboriginals the opportunity to speak out using video and music. This short documentary was made with the guidance of these travelling studios and is part of the 2007 Selection - Wapikoni Mobile DVD.
About Conception and Contraception
Ishu Patel 1972 11 min
Animated drawings illustrate how conception occurs and the way that various birth control devices, surgical methods, and the pill function in effecting contraception. The film is without spoken commentary and is designed to be used by professional personnel. Film without words.
From the Forests of Kitcisakik to the Forests of Xingu
Evelyne Papatie 2009 6 min
Evelyne Papatie talks about her trip to the Mato Grosso forests of Brazil. In the rites and customs of the Ikepengs, she rediscovers the pride of being Anishnabe.

Since 2004, the travelling studios of Wapikoni Mobile have enabled Quebec First Nations youth to express themselves through videos and music. This short film was made with the guidance of these travelling studios and is part of the 2008 Selection - Wapikoni Mobile
Here Is Canada
Tony Ianzelo 1972 28 min
Viewers outside Canada, and Canadians themselves, here have the pleasure of looking at, understanding, and discovering the many facets of this vast land, presented in choice film footage that is at once informative, visually appealing, and absorbing.
Volcano
Kaj Pindal 1967 20 s
A clip to discourage smoking.
La Cueca Sola
Marilú Mallet 2003 52 min
Santiago, Chile. September 11, 1973. A military dictatorship seizes power and wields it for 17 years. Thousands of men disappear. "Donde estan? (Where are they?)," ask the women, their partners in la cueca, the traditional Chilean courtship dance. Surmounting their grief, the women speak out and struggle to restore democracy. Their lives suspended, they continue to dance la cueca sola, alone.

This documentary by Marilu Mallet tells the stories of five women who suffered under dictatorship and emerged as heroes under democracy. The threads of the five stories are closely intertwined with the history of Chile, encouraging reflection on the burden of heritage, the relativity of happiness and the power of memory. Navigating through the past but firmly moored in the present, the film expresses an entire nation's faith in a future in which such a thing will never happen again.
Anniversary
1963 19 min
Here you will see Marie Dressler, Mary Pickford, Norma Shearer, Walter Huston and a host of other Canadians who achieved world renown on the silver screen. Slapstick, romance, tragedy, comedy--it's all here in an entertaining sampling of what audiences have applauded down the years. You see the audiences too, and the theatres where early movies first drew in the fans. As guide you could hardly find a more knowledgeable or familiar figure than Walter Pidgeon, a Canadian with eighty or more films to his credit. He recalls the personalities of the great stars he has known and explains how the technology developed that shows the stars on the screen.
Script to Screen
Claude Delorme 1972 21 min
For those curious to know the behind-the-scenes stages through which a film passes before it reaches the screen, this film explains the basic steps of motion picture film production. Script to Screen takes a mock-serious happening and follows it all the way through direction, photography, editing, sound effects, synchronization of sound and visuals, and various laboratory processes. Filmmaking is seen to be a craft of many hands and minds.
Sanctuary
Jamie Escallon-Buraglia 2005 12 min
A program for emerging filmmakers to make high impact, low budget docs. Sanctuary tells the story of Sergio Loreto, who has lived in Canada for 18 years, but is now seeking sanctuary in a Toronto church so not be deported to Guatemala.
Twenty Years of Feminist Filmmaking
Cheryl Sim & Janice Brown 1994 5 min
A clip montage for presentation at the National Action Committee on the Status of Women to commemorate the 20th anniversary of Studio D and the National Action Committee.
NFB Pioneers II: Her Voice, the Studio D Story
Lucia Piccinni 2007 55 min
Part of the NFB Pioneers series with the Doc Channel, this episode deals with the Studio D, the first permanent, state-funded women's film unit in the world created in 1974. Studio D gave a number of women the unprecedented opportunity to work consistently on women-centred film projects. Features interviews with Gerry Rogers, Bonnie Sherr-Klein, Zoe Dirse, Susan Trow, Gail Singer, Dorothy Henault and Beverly Shaffer.
"When I Go ... That's It!"
Colin Low , George C. Stoney , … 1972 11 min
Ex-fisherman Billy Crane in Brampton, Ontario, at an industrial job with regular hours. Here he tells why he left Fogo Island and says he has no regrets. (See also Billy Crane Moves Away.)
Beware, Beware, My Beauty Fair
Jean Lafleur & Peter Svatek 1972 28 min
An engaging drama for children by the Children's Theatre, Montréal. On a school auditorium stage, an audience watches the portrayal of the beauty and the beast adventure. But the film audience sees more. Behind the scenes, in the shadows and up dark stairways, another drama develops with suspense to equal the fairy tale's. It is a play within a play, convincingly acted out by a talented group of young thespians.
Samsara: The Wheel of Life and Death
Bill Davies 1972 10 min
An exotic view of Pondicherry, former French colony on India's southeastern coast. This is a film of observation, made without commentary, but replete with impressions of this colourful old French-Indian port where life begins and ends in the streets. Life here is like a river, and only the camera can catch and hold the thousand-and-one sights that pour by the awed spectator. Film without words.
Why Won't Tommy Eat?
Judith Crawley 1948 16 min
This film examines the problem of children who won't eat, and what can be done about it. Tommy should be hungry, but he just picks at his food. Going back to early babyhood, the film traces in detail, how eating habits are formed, how individual likes and dislikes must be taken into consideration, and that the worst habit of all is the permanent battle over food. After this analysis, Tommy still sits by his well-filled plate. In despair his mother takes him to the doctor, who explains that she is really the problem. She realizes that she has been tense, impatient with Tommy from the start. Now it will take painstaking care to build a new atmosphere of cooperation and friendliness, to learn understanding of Tommy's personal requirements at mealtimes, and all the time.
Keepers of Wildlife
Michael McKennirey 1972 20 min
Canada's wilderness areas harbour some of the last remaining species of North American wildlife. This film shows what is being done by specialists of the Canadian Wildlife Service to prevent further depletion of their numbers. It is an enormous program of tabulating, banding, tagging, and, in the case of larger animals such as the bear and the buffalo, giving health check-ups. An engrossing film for any audience, replete with close-ups of animals, waterfowl, and fish.
He Acts His Age
Judith Crawley 1949 14 min
How a child's emotional development normally keeps pace with his physical growth; the behaviour he exhibits at certain ages. This introductory film ten from one to fifteen years of age and shows the characteristics of each group.
Arrest, Search and Seizure
T.R. Wagstaff & E.J. Tooke 1972 10 min
A Royal Canadian Mounted Police training film on deploying personnel to make a successful arrest after receiving information on drug trafficking.
"... and They Lived Happily Ever After"
Kathleen Shannon , Irene Angelico , … 1975 13 min
Made in 1975, as part of the Challenge for Change program, this film takes a long, hard look at marriage and motherhood as expressed in the views of a group of young girls and married women. Their opinions cover a wide range. At regular intervals glossy advertisements extolling romance, weddings, babies, flash across the screen, in strong contrast to the words that are being spoken. The film ends on a sobering thought: the solution to dashed expectations could be as simple as growing up before marriage.
Light to Starboard
Jerry Krepakevich 1972 47 min
This film presents the historical development of lighthouses in Canada, and shows the conversion from keeper-maintained lights to automated equipment.
Yukon Old, Yukon New
John Howe 1961 19 min
The old spirit of the Yukon returns as Dawson City prepares for its Discovery Day celebrations. Witness a round of nostalgic scenes: a main street parade, refurbished saloons, the can-can. Time recedes as the film explores the hazardous mountain passes and the golden creek of Eldorado.
Children of War
Premika Ratnam 1986 25 min
A short doc about teenagers from war and conflict zones. It focuses on the 1985-86 International Youth for Peace and Justice Tour – featuring young people from Central America, southern Africa and Northern Ireland – and depicts their interaction with Canadian high school students. Contains graphic accounts of violence.
Who Sheds His Blood
Judith Crawley 1941 10 min
This film estimates the tremendous value of the Blood Donor Clinic, organized in September, 1939, at the University of Toronto by Dr. C.H. Best. The serum is processed by the Connaught Laboratories in Toronto, under the authority of the Minister of Pensions and National Health, while the Red Cross maintains blood donor clinics across the country.
Out Beyond Town
Evelyn Cherry 1948 11 min
After a farm child becomes sick, a visit from the sanitary inspector points out various precautions for maintaining a clean water supply and preventing the spread of disease. The local school is also given pointers on better sanitation.
Land in Trust
Evelyn Cherry & Lawrence Cherry 1949 27 min
A film on soil conservation, showing problems facing farmers in different areas of Canada. Many scenes of soil eroded, gouged and leached out by water, and of soil blowing away, prove the ominous necessity of understanding and preserving the land if we are to continue to reap vital crops. The development of soil through the centuries, the particular conservation problems in eastern and western Canada, and how soil fertility may be restored and maintained are dealt with in detail.
Four New Apple Dishes
Judith Crawley 1940 11 min
A film showing how apples may be made an attractive part of the menu for many different occasions. Four recipes--apple salad, apple upside-down cake, glazed apples and apple ice cream--are given in detail, and a section is devoted to the choice of apples for different purposes.
Arctic Saga
Douglas Wilkinson 1952 11 min

This film presents highlights in the life of Idlouk, Inuk hunter, and his family during the long day of the midnight sun on Baffin Island. Depicted are: a seal hunt, a narwhale chase, and scenes of busy camp life. Surrounding all is the Arctic scenery--strange ice formations, the eerie blue whiteness of Arctic winter and, during the time of continuous daylight, the green and brown of Arctic tundra.
Family Down the Fraser
Tony Westman 1978 27 min
Richard and Rochelle Wright and their two sons travelled the Fraser River from Tête Jaune Cache to the Pacific coast in a rubber raft. In addition to being a great adventure, the trip brought them into contact with people who told them some of the history of the river, and acquainted them with lifestyles vastly different from their own citified ways.
The Pacifist Who Went to War
David Neufeld 2002 51 min
This documentary is the story of two Mennonite brothers from Manitoba who were forced to make a decision in 1939, as Canada joined World War II. In the face of 400 years of pacifist tradition, should they now go to war? Ted became a conscientious objector while his brother went into military service. Fifty years later, the town of Winkler dedicates its first war memorial and John begins to share his war experiences with Ted.
They Had Thirteen Children...
Anika Lirette 2009 26 min
In this short documentary, filmmaker Anika Lirette retraces the unusual life of her Acadian grandparents, who had 13 children. Of the 13, eight had intellectual and physical disabilities - all caused by phenylketonuria, a genetic disorder now known to be easily managed through diet. Through first-person accounts and archival photography, the film traces the history of her family as it struggled with the consequences of the disorder, at a time when the Catholic Church condemned birth control and medical services were virtually non-existent. In French with English subtitles.
A Trumpet for the Combo
Morten Parker 1965 8 min
In a city high school, a jazz combo needs a trumpet player. Randy is the natural choice since he is the most talented, but the music teacher favours Bruce, a black student. What should come first? The band? The opportunity it affords to Bruce? The teacher's pleasure? These are questions for the audience to decide.
New Gold for Alaska
Dennis Sawyer 1974 50 min
Six days of intense international competition, March, 1974, as Alaska hosts the Third Arctic Winter Games and carries off most of the gold medals. This film reports on the greatly expanded roster of events staged in Anchorage, as single contestants and teams from the Yukon, the Northwest Territories, Arctic Québec, and Alaska match skills in indoor and outdoor sports, on ice and snow, in pool and gymnasium, before crowds of spectators from all over the Arctic and beyond.
Salvador Allende Gossens: A Testimony
Maurice Bulbulian & Michel Gauthier 1974 18 min
A brief acquaintance with the president of Chile before his assassination in September, 1973. In 1972, several miners from Québec went to Chile to observe mining operations there. They also met with the President of the Republic. Salvador Allende explains, publicly at a meeting of icampanneros r, as well as in a conference with the visitors, the revolutionary socio-economic reforms he envisages for his country, which include nationalization of the copper industry. René Lévesque, Théo Gagné and Joseph Gosselin appear in the film. (A film for all students of political change. With English subtitles).
Everyone's Business
Mary Armstrong 1982 20 min
The Churchill Park Greenhouse Cooperative in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, is a small produce business, much like any other trying to survive in a deteriorating economy. What makes it special is that eight out of the nine co-op members are disabled. Growing, washing, drying and packing vegetables, handling sales, bookkeeping, paying bills and sometimes postponing their own paycheques in order to see the co-op through hard financial times, these determined individuals are dynamic and self-sufficient members of society.
Ozias Leduc... Painter of the Soul's Seasons
Michel Brault 1996 58 min
Ozias Leduc (1864-1955) was one of Quebec's most important visual artists. Largely self-taught, Leduc's wide-ranging painting, writing and photography have both a symbolic and spiritual dimension. This biography illuminates Leduc's life by drawing on the writings of two of his friends, writer Robert de Roquebrune (1889-1978) and painter Paul-Émile Borduas (1905-1960). Their recollections paint the portrait of an enigmatic and reserved man who summed up his vocation with the words, "The artist's sole mission is to give expression to the Beautiful. The Beautiful as free as space and time."
DNA
Bané Jovanovic 1969 10 min
The likeness of an offspring to its parents, whatever the species, has been traced to a unique molecule that controls the production of proteins and transmits characteristics. This genetic material, dioxyribonucleic acid, or DNA--the hereditary material of life--is described and illustrated in this film by colour animation. Mutations are also discussed. A film for science students.
Danny and Nicky
Douglas Jackson 1969 55 min
This feature documentary offers a comparison of the care of two boys with Down syndrome. Danny lives at home with his brothers and sisters and attends a special neighborhood school for children with disabilities. Nicky lives in a large institution for persons with intellectual disabilities. This film clarifies common misconceptions about intellectual disabilities, and presents an intimate portrait of the families, staff, and communities that come together to assist Danny and Nicky in learning, playing, and living a fulfilling life.
Blue Like a Gunshot
Masoud Raouf 2003 5 min
Discover a short, animated film that explores the conflict between nature, civilization, and the absurd vanity of human warfare. With its interplay of shadow and light, this film is sure to sweep you away.
The Second Arctic Winter Games
Dennis Sawyer 1972 28 min
The Games included many sports seen in Olympic competition, plus others--for example, pirautaqturniq, the Inuit skill of hitting an object with a ten meter-long sled dog whip. This film captures the all-out participation in the week-long events hosted by Whitehorse, capital of the Yukon, with competitors from all over the Arctic including Alaska, and with observers from the Soviet Union.
First Arctic Winter Games
Dennis Sawyer & R.C. Gibson 1970 25 min
A short documentary film about the first Arctic Winter Games, held in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, in 1970. The inaugural edition of this international event was attended by more than 8,000 participants and spectators, including 750 Canadian athletes and 250 athletes from the US. The Games included many sports typically included in Olympic competitions, with a specific focus on Indigenous sports as well.
Schefferville 4th Arctic Winter Games
Dennis Sawyer 1976 26 min
An exciting view of the Arctic Winter Games held in Schefferville, northern Québec, in 1976. The events range from table-tennis to curling, and include six indigenous arctic sports. The games spanned seven days of hard competition, as well as a week of sharing common northern experiences and good will. And, despite temperatures of -30C, the participants' enthusiasm created an atmosphere of great warmth, which we witness as the losers congratulate the winners, and the winners apologize.
Spirit of Tibet: Journey to Enlightenment, The Life and World of Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche
Matthieu Ricard 1998 46 min
The Spirit of Tibet is an intimate glimpse into the life and world of one of Tibet's most revered 20th-century teachers: Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche (1910-1991). A writer, poet and meditation master, Khyentse Rinpoche was an inspiration to all who encountered him. His many students throughout the world included the Dalai Lama. This unique portrait tells Khyentse Rinpoche's story from birth to death... to rebirth--from his escape following China's invasion of Tibet to his determination to preserve and transmit Buddhist teachings far and wide. His life leads us on a journey revealing the wonders of Tibet's art, ritual, philosophy and sacred dance. Along with rarely photographed areas of Tibet, Bhutan and Nepal, this film features interviews with the Dalai Lama, who speaks candidly about his own spiritual life. Director Matthieu Ricard--noted French photographer, Buddhist monk and best-selling author--travelled with Khyentse Rinpoche for over 14 years.
The Challenge of Change
James Carney 1969 16 min
"Today the rate of change and the areas of life molded by it are increasing astronomically ..." states the introduction to this film. Impressions of all that constitutes the environment of modern man are conveyed in the film in a kaleidoscope of movement and sound--a montage of pictures from the urban and industrial scene, reflecting the creativity and inventiveness of which people are capable but which in turn demand adaptation and adjustment if we are to survive.
"Ah... the Money, the Money, the Money" - The Battle for Saltspring
Mort Ransen 2001 50 min
"Saltspring Island... close to a city, but full of magical, almost untouched places. A small town with a Saturday market. And in the middle of the island... trees, lots of trees." When the roar of chainsaws shatters the quiet of this idyllic setting, director Mort Ransen and other residents awake to an unexpected intrusion. A logging operation is underway in a central pristine valley. Within hours, a group of islanders rallies to oppose the cutting--only to discover that a logging company has purchased one of the largest expanses of undeveloped wilderness in the Southern Gulf Islands. Concerned about its potentially devastating impact on Saltspring's ecology, economy and natural beauty, the residents set out to stop the logging. The award-winning director of Margaret's Museum, Mort Ransen, turns his camera on his own community to document a lively and provocative debate. On one side--the developers, who defend their right to do what they want on private land. On the other--Saltspring residents, who blockade roads, chain themselves to logging trucks and lobby government to protect their island.
The Specialist
Don Arioli & Boris Kolar 1971 9 min
An amusingly drawn cartoon about a highly proficient lady bricklayer, graduate of Specialists' School, whose work takes her high up in the world, and her erstwhile friend, whose equally dedicated professionalism brings him lower. She builds towers of bricks while he tunnels down below ground. What develops in the story involves other unlikely characters, plausible enough in this cartoon context.
Canadian Army Newsreel Issue No. 7
1943 9 min
This newsreel includes the following sequences: 1. Black Watch Easter Service 2. Medical Inspection 3. Army Soccer Finals 4. Baseball Season Opens 5. The King's Farm 6. Tunnellers Receive Gibraltar Keys 7. Khaki Close-ups 8. Man of Vimy
Musicanada
Malca Gillson & Tony Ianzelo 1975 57 min
With no commentary other than the music and words of the performers themselves, this fast-moving film presents the grandest Canadian concert of them all. Here, the performers include both the great and the unknown from across the country, the musical styles span the centuries, and the artists are involved in all stages of musicianship: learning, teaching, conducting, recording, performing. Among the film's many stars are Edith Butler, Beau Dommage, Maureen Forrester, Glenn Gould, Paul Horn, the Huggett Family, and Gilles Vigneault.
Seven Shades of Pale
Les Rose 1975 28 min
From a quiet, neglected corner of Nova Scotia, a meeting with the Black community that shows both the traditional attitudes of the older generation and the more alert, resolved stance of the young. The old still pin their hopes on the church and the preacher, while the young look more towards the Black United Front and its roving director. For both generations change is a challenge. The common hope is for a fuller life.
Interview
Caroline Leaf & Veronika Soul 1979 13 min
A freewheeling cinematic experience, this film is the work of two filmmakers who relate their perceptions of each other through their respective animation techniques. Images and words are paired in startling associations. Each does a visual portrait of the other, based on characteristic gestures and impressions. A combination of techniques and materials produces a film of rich visual texture shaped by the hands and heads of two very different people.
How Things Have Changed
Jerry Krepakevich 1971 9 min
From the ranchlands of Alberta, a picture of the cattle drive as it is today, when big cattle-liners truck the livestock to receiving stations on the summer range. But archival photographs tell how it was in the old days when the cowboy was king, driving his herd by easy stages to distant, greener pastures. Big sky, undulating hills and distant mountains still hold the spell and romance of the West that old-timers remember.
One Sunday in Canada
Gilles Carle 1961 27 min
One Sunday in Canada visits an Italian community in the northwest sector of Montreal, where about half of the city's 150,000 Italians live. In the new suburbs where they are settling, the streets may have names like Venice, Naples, Genoa; and wherever men and women gather, there is the ebullience characteristic of the Latin. This is a Sunday on which special observances are held at the Italian church of Madonna della Difesa, and it is also the Sunday when Montreal's Cantalia soccer team challenges Toronto's Italia. A very human story of people adapting to life in a new environment.
"Water, Water, Everywhere ..."
Gilles Blais 1971 4 min
An underwater close-up of the death of a trout in polluted water. A film for conservationists and for all audiences concerned about preserving the natural world and the creatures that inhabit it.
Do It Yourself
1969 14 min
A career guidance film about scientific research that shows the scientist as a methodical explorer of the unknown.
Mon oncle Antoine (Dubbed Version)
Claude Jutra 1971 1 h 44 min
There was a time when the general store was the crossroads of life, a place where a boy could learn all he needed for the way ahead--especially when his uncle was the storekeeper, and also the undertaker, and the nephew often called upon to lend a hand. This film recalls such a store in a village in the asbestos mining area of Quebec in the early 1940s. The film presents a hundred-and-one vignettes of village life--all the bitter-sweet nostalgia with which a man might remember the events that thrust him into manhood. The action takes place on Christmas Eve--the one time of the year when the mine closed its doors, and the store bustled with humanity. For a few hours the villagers could forget their poverty and converge on the store for gossip and revelry. In the midst of it all was Uncle Antoine, customary ebullience and ribald humour whetted by occasional recourse to the gin bottle, and always somewhere in the background, his nephew Jacques taking it all in. But for Jacques this night was to bring sudden initiation into some of the harsher, cruder realities of life, even acquaintance with tragedy and death. Mon oncle Antoine is about a Quebec that makes no headlines but reflects the whole of life, the ebb and flow of hope and despair that might be in anyone's memory.
The Snow War
Harold Tichenor 1979 25 min
This film describes the efforts of a mobile avalanche-control team to keep open the important Rogers Pass, situated in Glacier National Park, British Columbia. The film describes, in a visually exciting and dramatic way, the range of methods employed by the team: shear tests, snow profiles, blast tests. The climax of the film comes during a quasi-military operation involving the deliberate triggering of avalanches.
Angus
Michael Scott & Andy Thomson 1971 12 min
A film portrait of Angus Mowat, with commentary by his son, author Farley Mowat. At seventy-six, Angus still shows an enviable capacity for life, turning his hand to things that the leisure of retirement now makes possible. One of these is the rebuilding of an old fishing boat, converting it to sail. This is a picture of a man who has reached his later years with no slackening of interest in life, who finds a good and constant companion in nature, and contentment in the quiet isolation of his cabin by the shore.
Reflections on a Leadership Convention
Peter Raymont 1978 21 min
Flora MacDonald was Canada's first woman to make a bid for the leadership of the Progressive Conservative Party. She lost. This documentary shows people who were close to the event. It questions the mechanics of a leadership convention, whether it is the best way to choose a nation's leader, and whether Flora lost because she is a woman. Among the people interviewed are Flora MacDonald herself, the late Judy Lamarsh, political scientist John Meisel, and political commentator Larry Zolf. (Follow-up film to: Flora: Scenes from a Leadership Convention.)
Thousand Islands Summer
Roger Blais 1960 13 min
This is a light-hearted film about a summer camp for young girls and their energetic enthusiasm for outdoor life--swimming, hiking, campfire gatherings. Photographed at Camp Mohawk in the beautiful Thousand Islands holiday area of the St. Lawrence River, this colour film provides a good example of the organization, care and preparation that make a summer camp a happy, healthy experience.
Head Full of Questions
Moira Simpson 1989 19 min
The first film in the Growing Up series tells curious pre-adolescents the facts they want to know, with an appealing mix of humour and imagination. Topics discussed include sexual attraction and sexual intercourse, fertilization, the growth of an embryo and birth of a baby, as well as a brief look at AIDS and at birth control. Detailed information about relationships is presented through the loving connection between two animated characters, Fred and Anna. The two hosts engage the students in discussion, encouraging them to ask questions and share their thoughts and feelings.
Especially You
Moira Simpson 1989 16 min
The last film in the series focuses on the skills pre-adolescents will need to cope with peer pressure. Animated sequences reflecting universal peer-pressure situations, and live-action role-playing sequences, help children gain skill in decision-making. When the action is stopped in the middle of a scene, the children are challenged to come up with their own solutions to the problem.
Changes
Moira Simpson 1989 18 min
This film explores the physical and emotional changes associated with puberty. Imaginative, animated sequences illustrate the amazing physical changes the body undergoes. Myths are dispelled and youngsters are encouraged to feel pride in themselves and their emerging sexuality.
My Mother's Village
John Paskievich 2001 1 h 41 min
In a documentary that spans two continents and several generations, acclaimed director John Paskievich delves into the experience of exile and its impact on the human spirit.

Almost fifty years after his family fled Ukraine for freedom in Canada, the filmmaker visits his parents' homeland. It's a place both familiar and foreign. Drawing on his years growing up in Winnipeg, Paskievich explores how children of refugees and immigrants are caught between two worlds. While they struggle to put down roots in a new country, they must also preserve traditions of a distant land they have never known.

Paskievich's journey through Ukraine is interwoven with stories of displacement from other prominent Ukrainian Canadians--authors George Melnyk and Fran Ponomarenko, filmmaker Bohdana Bashuk, director Halya Kuchmij and dancer Lecia Polujan. A rich tapestry of memory and history, My Mother's Village brings to light the humour, anger, joy and complexity of living between borders.
Has Anybody Seen My Umbrella?
Eva Szasz 1990 10 min
The story of a prince who leaves school after his grade one graduation thinking he knows all there is to be happy. When he has grown up he meets Cinderella at his birthday party ball, but when she loses her glass slipper he cannot read her name on it. Thinking her name is "Umbrella" he searches far and wide shouting "Has anybody seen my Umbrella". After timely intervention of the prince's fairy godmother they are united. They get married and spend their honeymoon in grade two. Based on the popular children's book Has Anybody Seen My Umbrella by Max Ferguson.
Is My Story Hurting You?
David Homel 2007 52 min
This documentary by David Homel journeys across the ravaged landscape of the Balkans after the forgotten wars of the nineties that destroyed Yugoslavia. Vladimir Jovic is a Bosnian Serb psychiatrist who saw the break-up of his country and the end of Slobodan Milosevic's dictatorship. Today he treats his many compatriots who have been traumatized by their country's past. This story of an exemplary man delves into the aftermath of a barbarity that has marked people for life. From the battlefields to the psychiatrist's couch, Is My Story Hurting You? provides a disturbing look behind the scenes of history, where truth and lies overlap and evil terrifies but also fascinates. By piecing together memories, the film becomes a kind of therapy itself and a liberating force. In the end, resiliency wins out and life carries on.
Circulation à Montréal (Part 1)
Bernard Devlin 1955 15 min
In a city the size of Montreal with thousands and thousands of motorized vehicles, traffic problems are difficult to solve. Here is a panorama of such problems. This film includes an interview with Mayor Jean Drapeau, when Montreal was still the metropolis of Canada.
The Children of Refus Global
Manon Barbeau 1998 1 h 14 min
In 1948, Paul-Émile Borduas' Refus global manifesto proclaimed the end of the "reign of fear" embodied by the Duplessis regime. Fifty years later, all the history books mention this document which laid the foundations of modern Quebec. Daughter of one of the signatories, filmmaker Manon Barbeau takes a fresh look at this period. She went to meet the sons and daughters of Barbeau, Borduas, Mousseau and Riopelle, "children of Refus global" who, like her, suffered the consequences of their parents' revolutionary gesture. None of them emerged unscathed from a childhood made up of worries and abandonment, but also of a richness that only art can bring. Especially when it appears to us, as it does here, in the light of emotion.
Band of Exiles
Yves Bisaillon 1994 58 min
Here in Toronto, four young Somali refugees are finishing high school. What did they bring with them? What did they find in Canada? Their testimonies, about us and about themselves, interspersed with newsreel footage and sequences of a theatrical creation in which they put all their soul, make them immediately endearing and overturn many prejudices held against refugees. A film that makes you want to get to know them better.
Abortion: Stories from North and South
Gail Singer 1984 54 min
Women have always sought ways to terminate unwanted pregnancies, despite powerful patriarchal structures and systems working against them. This film provides a historical overview of how church, state and the medical establishment have determined policies concerning abortion. From this cross-cultural survey--filmed in Ireland, Japan, Thailand, Peru, Colombia, and Canada--emerges one reality: only a small percentage of the world's women has access to safe, legal operations.
Partners in Production
1944 36 min
The opening scenes of this film recall the grim days of Dunkirk. We see Britain in that time of crisis girding herself for the siege with the organization of Civil Defence and ARP, and the formation of the Home Guard. On the industrial side, the film shows readjustments made to increase production, such as the absorption of women into war factories and the setting up of labour-management committees. In describing how these committees functioned in the coal industry, the film demonstrates the importance of total democracy in waging total war.
Loyalties
Lesley Ann Patten 1999 57 min
This documentary follows 2 women whose meeting pieces together both halves of a story: that of slave and slave owner. When Dr. Ruth Whitehead meets graduate student Carmelita Robertson, who had come to do research at the Museum of Natural History in Halifax, the women realize both their ancestors come from South Carolina, and that their names sound shudderingly familiar. Embarking on a journey to Charleston in search of their connection, Ruth and Carmelita encounter a modern South where the Klan is on trial for burning black churches and where they must come to terms with the thunderous cruelty of the past.
The Old Believers
John Paskievich 1988 56 min
This extraordinary film introduces us to the Reutov family, part of an isolated northern Alberta community called the Old Believers. Adhering to the original Orthodox Christian dogma and rituals introduced to ancient Rus (present-day Ukraine, Byelorussia and Russia) by the Greeks of Byzantium, the Old Believers see themselves as the last Christians left on the face of the Earth. Here in North America, for the first time in their history, they are threatened not by persecution, but by economic bounty and the western notion of personal freedom. Shot over the four seasons, the film is both a beautiful rendering of timeless rituals and a fascinating exploration of the Old Believers' turbulent history.
Holding Our Ground
Anne Henderson 1988 50 min
Filmed in a squatter community of Labangon in Cebu, Philippines, Holding Our Ground is the inspiring story of a group of women who have organized collectively to pressure their government for land reform, to establish their own money-lending system and to create shelters for street kids. A story of grassroots organizing that can be a model in both hemispheres.
Qimmiq: Canada's Arctic Dog
1981 24 min
The Eskimo dog--the Qimmiq--has been an integral part of northern Canadian life for almost two thousand years. Archival photographs and film footage illustrate how this hard-working purebred was used for hunting, pulling sleds and keeping polar bears at bay. However, by 1975, the breed, decimated by a changing northern lifestyle, was all but extinct. This inspiring documentary shows the dedicated efforts of biologist Dr. William Carpenter to revitalize the strain and how, with support from local Inuit societies, his breeding project has resulted in a growing and once again thriving Qimmiq population.
Canada's Reindeer
1981 24 min
In 1935 a herd of 2,700 reindeer completed a five-year journey from Alaska to north of the Arctic circle. They were imported and re-settled by the Canadian Government in an effort to improve the economic conditions of the Inuit. This film is the story of the trek, the raising of reindeer for saleable meat, its effects upon the people, and the transformation of herding from a primitive art to one using modern technology. The film shows how an ecologically sound, make-work project that started as a gamble ended up a success, generating jobs and money for the local people.
Camera on Labour No. 2
Tim Wilson & Alvin Goldman 1956 10 min
Unions Build Low Rent Housing: Autumn-winter construction of Ottawa's Mooretown housing development, brain-child of the local council of the Trades and Labor Congress, eliminates seasonal unemployment for bricklayers, plasterers and carpenters. New Life for Ghost Town Miners: Aided by the provincial government, jobless mine workers of Alberta move from Nordegg and other abandoned coal mining areas to obtain new work elsewhere in Canada.
On Stage
Ronald Dick 1950 30 min
A film aimed at helping amateur theatre groups stage plays. There are practical tips on casting, rehearsing, sets, and costumes. (Also released under the title Curtain Time.)
The Great Chess Movie
Gilles Carle & Camille Coudari 1982 1 h 19 min
In this Gilles Carle feature documentary on the game of chess, the international chess match is cast as a classic Western shoot-out. Three chess greats dominate the film: Russia's Anatoly Karpov; Viktor Korchnoi, a Russian defector; and American Bobby Fischer. Chess aficionados Camille Coudari and Fernando Arrabal analyze the personalities and strategies of the players and comment on the interplay of politics and chess.
Songs of Nova Scotia
Grant Crabtree 1958 11 min
Dr. Helen Creighton explores her native Nova Scotia, finding singers and songs in order to document the fast-receding folklore of the early pioneers on her tape recorder.
This Is Our Canada
Stanley Jackson 1945 20 min
A brief look at the history of Canada followed by a demonstration of the growth and strengths which Canada developed under the pressure of World War II. Included are glimpses of the resources, industries, people and lifestyles.
Poison Ivy
Richard James Martin 1979 12 min
Sixty-six-year-old Ivy Granstrom jogs, skis, bowls, gardens and does carpentry work. Sometimes she walks into a wall. Due to insufficient care at birth, she enjoys only 4.5% vision, but she doesn't let blindness interfere with her life. She practises the art of "mind over eyes."
After the Big One: Nuclear War on the Prairies
Bob Lower 1983 23 min
This film deals straightforwardly with the consequences of a nuclear attack for the Canadian Prairies. The Prairies are singled out because of their proximity to huge stockpiles of intercontinental ballistic missiles located in North Dakota. Scenes include a visit to a missile base and to an emergency government bunker in Manitoba. A doctor, a farmer and a civil defence coordinator provide different perspectives on nuclear war. Although the film focuses on one region, it provides a model for people everywhere who would like to know more about their own situation but don't know what questions to ask.
Fanfares
Barbara Willis-Sweete & Christopher Reilly 1993 29 min
The documentary film, Fanfares, explores the creative process six composers go through as they co-write a musical composition which is to be performed in a shopping mall.
Trees
Robert Doucet 1978 1 min
Life in Canada is reflected by people's comments on trees as a tree is shown undergoing seasonal changes.
Boomsville
Yvon Mallette 1968 10 min
An amusing diagnosis of big-city growing pains, Boomsville is an ironic view of town planning, or rather, the lack of it, and what has happened to our cities as a result. Done in cartoon animation, the film traces the growth of the typical city, from a tiny settlement in the vast North American wilderness to the car-clogged metropolis that so many cities are today. Film without words.
Saskatoon: Land and Growth Control
Michel Régnier 1974 56 min
In the city of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, an effective government policy of controlling land investment prevents speculation, keeps land prices down, and provides a good balance between commercial, residential and public areas.
Sabina
Katherine Li 1991 7 min
This short animated film is an impressionistic exploration of sensuality within the feminine imagination. Inspired by Anaïs Nin's poetic writing, Sabina breathes with lush, elemental energy where colours embrace and shapes caress in the soft currents of water and desire.
Cold-Rodders
Claude Larue 1970 15 min
An amusing view of the machine that has taken the country by winter storm: the snowmobile, revving, raring, ready to go. What the motorboat was to the summer lake, this motorized sled now is to the snow-covered fields. This film shows it all--the pull of this sit-down sport, the eagerness of the trade to keep it booming, the daring rivalry of the racing crowd, and the bemused pleasure of the family outing.
Street Lessons
Isabella Cairess Favaro 2003 10 min
Street Lessons is a powerful, 10 minutes documentary that examines the meaning of an education lost as seen through the eyes of Buddy Dwan, a 43 year-old homeless man - who dropped out of school at the age of 13. Buddy offers candid reflections on the personal cost of missing out on a decent education and delivers poignant "street lectures" to young people about the need to stay in school. Through Buddy's voice we are privileged to gain a rare and new perspective on the value of an education.
Portrait of the Artist
Gordon Burwash , Julian Biggs , … 1964 28 min
Glimpses into the lives of three artists: Erhabor Amokpae of Lagos; Cid de Sosa Pinto of Sao Paulo; and Gord Smith of Montréal. Each artist provides his own commentary on how he lives, works, thinks and feels.
Quo Vadis, Mrs. Lumb?
Ron Kelly 1965 27 min
A portrait of Jean Bessie Lumb, a Chinese-Canadian woman. Mrs. Lumb talks candidly about the prejudice she felt during her childhood in Vancouver, her arranged marriage, her occupation, raising children, and intermarriage.
The Great Blue Heron
Jean-Louis Frund 1979 44 min
This film documents the yearly cycle of the great blue heron, its migration from Central America and the West Indies to the St. Lawrence River in Québec, and the breeding and rearing of its young. Outstanding footage shot by the filmmaker perched high in a tree affords close-ups of the birds' intricate courtship rituals. A sensitive, beautifully photographed nature film with much to tell us of ecology and wildlife.
My Macondo
Dan Weldon 1990 1 h 1 min
Inspired by the people and landscape of Colombia's Banana Zone, Nobel Prize-winning author Gabriel Garcia Marquez created the Buendia family and the village of Macondo, placing them at the centre of his acclaimed novel, One Hundred Years of Solitude. Among the events described in Marquez' novel is the 1928 Banana Strike and the subsequent murder of 3 000 banana workers by the Colombian Army. My Macondo sets out in search of Marquez' legendary village and the truth behind that incident. Is the fictional village of Macondo a real place with a real history? Did the slaughter of the strikers actually take place? In trying to answer these questions, My Macondo explores the nature of history and myth, and poses questions about fiction and truth.
How Death Came to Earth
Ishu Patel 1971 14 min
A legend from India, interpreted by a filmmaker from that country. It is a story of gods and men, of suns and moons and Earth, interpreted with an animation style and a richness of colour and design as arresting to the eye as the story and the music are to the ear. Sometimes the illustrations are painted on cells, sometimes the figures are cut-outs moving across shining backgrounds, but always the pace is gentle, inevitable.
Fire Detectives
Donald Brittain 1958 9 min
This is a film showing the scientific study made of fires set to doomed buildings in Aultsville, Ontario, a town evacuated for flooding by the St. Lawrence Seaway. Scientists from Canada's National Research Council devised instruments for recording the progress of a fire in all its stages. With them, they probed the terrible inferno of burning buildings, making observations that may help the country's firefighters to lessen the tragic toll of life and property reported annually.
In Search of Innocence
Léonard Forest 1964 27 min
A questioning filmmaker from Québec finds out how Vancouver's poets and painters look at life and art. Among the people seen are sculptor Donald Jarvis, painters Jack Shadbolt, Joy Long and Margaret Peterson, and printmaker Sing Lim.
Strange Doings
1964 9 min
Shark Hunt: Canadian Fisheries Patrol in the Pacific brings in a huge basking shark. Stringing a Line: A power line is strung by helicopter over mountains in Banff National Park. Arctic Town: Inuvik, a new town built on stilts inside the Arctic Circle.
The Superior Scrapbook
Jim Farrell , Bill Lemmon , … 1970 20 min
Made by students of the Thunder Bay Community Film/VTR project, this film records the social history of the Lakehead from 1880-1913 through the use of old photographs.
Man of America
Thomas Farley 1956 30 min
This film brings a report from Jack Scott, a Vancouver newspaper columnist, about a United Nations-sponsored migration program in Bolivia in which icampesinos r--tin miners of the Andes mountains--are being moved from the desolate Altiplano to more fertile lowlands. We hear most of the story from one of the miners who describes the skepticism with which his people first met the ideas and what it eventually came to mean to them in terms of new dwellings, land to cultivate, and work to support their families.
Canadians Advance Near Cambrai 2
1918 9 min
Cavalry detachments come and go at a staging post, while in the background, men feed the horses. Various types of armoured vehicles travel along a country road. They are carrying provisions, soldiers and a heavy piece of metal. The armoured vehicles are also engaged in combat. From inside a bunker, a soldier fires on a tank with a machine gun.
Canadians Advance Near Cambrai 1
1918 8 min
A supply company transporting provisions and soldiers advances amid the ruins then along a country road. It then crosses the main square in a French town while a company on bikes goes by at a good clip. Soldiers move equipment in flooded trenches. On the battlefield, trains on a narrow-gauge track carry munitions, prisoners and casualties.
Canada Communique No. 19
1945 15 min
Fish Unlimited: The Québec fisheries service restocks lakes with fish raised at the Station de Piscicole de Laurentides in Saint-Faustin. Mermaids of Canada: Members of the Mermaid Swimming Club give a demonstration of synchronized swimming in the University of Toronto's Hart House Pool. Also included is the Private Snafu film Three Brothers, from the American Army-Navy Screen Magazine series.
School for the Stage
Julian Biggs 1958 30 min
The Perspective camera follows some Canadian students as they pursue acting careers by studying at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, England.
Saskatchewan Traveller
Don Haldane 1956 30 min
The film follows a grocery salesman as he calls on merchants in small prairie communities, showing some of the people and problems he encounters. His time-tested techniques are contrasted with those of his brash young understudy.
Over-Dependency
Robert Anderson 1949 32 min
The case history of a man whose life is crippled by behaviour patterns carried over from a too-dependent childhood. Through therapy he comes to understand the causes of his illness and fear.
Eye Witness No. 53
Grant McLean 1953 11 min
Every year thousands of immigrants enter Canada. But what of their homelands and the ties they leave behind? This film visits Holland to tell that human story--the story of the Boelhauers, farm folk who choose emigration as the best means of one day owning their own land. Arriving in Canada, they are given hope by what they see around them. At the same time, Canada has acquired a fine family of the land.
The Ticket
Fergus McDonell 1958 30 min
Joe Faber, imprisoned at the age of nineteen on a charge of theft with violence, learns a trade and earns his parole half-way through his sentence. Through the John Howard Society he finds a job in a machine shop and all goes well until he is suddenly confronted by the man he had robbed. He accuses Joe of being an escaped convict and, discouraged, Joe quits his job. Fortunately, with the support of the John Howard Society and his employer he is able to overcome this setback and return to his new life.
Wits End
Roger Blais & Douglas Tunstell 1952 10 min
Jane Mallet appears in Nature Woman as a physical fitness enthusiast interviewed by Peter Mews. The Commodores sing Ilklay Moor, and then Peter Mews returns in the comedy skit Ten Minutes with Marg Margetson, in which a woman radio personality answers listeners' problems.
Pot-pourri
Jeff Hale , Austin Campbell , … 1962 7 min
A selection of publicity clips mounted together in one film to show the techniques of NFB animators. As in Hors-d'oeuvre, these "quickie" films were produced originally for government agencies, to carry messages to the public.
Escape
Thomas Farley 1956 30 min
This film indulges in some playful lampooning of the self-deluding tactics of the escape artist. A glib-tongued exponent of escapism, delivering a public lecture, illustrates his contentions with filmed episodes that show how clever people are at running away from reality. The mirror he holds up for us reflects some familiar faces; not our own, of course, but of people we all know.
In This Dark World
Jean Lenauer 1955 30 min
This film introduces a remarkable blind woman, Louise Cowan, who, as supervisor of home teaching services in Ontario for the Canadian National Institute for the Blind, helps others adjust to their disabilities. The film accompanies Miss Cowan on several visits to blind pupils in an Ontario community and shows how, through sympathy, encouragement, scolding and cajolery, she lifts them out of their despair to a more self-reliant acceptance of their sightless state.
The Harbour
Ernest Kirkpatrick 1953 9 min
Halifax, in winter as in summer, plays host to ships from all parts of the world--freighters, tankers, and luxury liners. To keep the procession moving is a tremendous job requiring modern facilities, scientific aids, and constant direction by the harbourmaster. The coordination required is shown with the piloting and berthing of a Swedish freighter.
Setting Fires for Science
Donald Brittain 1958 19 min
This film shows the scientific study of fires set to buildings in Aultsville, Ontario, a town evacuated for flooding by the St. Lawrence Seaway. Scientists at Canada's National Research Council devised instruments for recording the progress of a fire in all its stages, to help the country's fire fighters lessen fire's tragic toll.
Log House
Michael Rubbo & Andreas Poulsson 1976 27 min
This film is about the building of a traditional log cabin in Québec. It starts with the tree and finishes with the housewarming. While it is not a realistic housing option for many Canadians, it does provide encouragement for all of us to re-examine the resources around us that we may not be using effectively, if at all.
Zulu Time
Jonny Silver 1999 52 min
Best known as the amicable Director of the McLuhan Program in Culture and Technology at the University of Toronto, Derrick de Kerckhove is at the core of a world think-tank dedicated to probing the rapid changes of our global village. The documentary Zulu Time follows this "wired man" in his globe-trotting career as media prophet and probes into some of the most fascinating questions confronting us in our new electronic galaxy. As the spiritual inheritor of McLuhan's thought, de Kerckhove lives in perpetual oscillation between himself and his double, Marshall McLuhan, with whom he has become publicly identified and virtually assimilated.
Figure Skating
Ernest Reid 1964 14 min
An invitation to experience the thrill of spinning, jumping, skimming, and dancing on winged feet. The film shows how Canada's champions do it. Maria and Otto Jelinek, Don Jackson, Wendy Griner and Don McPherson appear briefly in dazzling exhibition, but the main object of the film is to show that figure skating is for everyone--children, young people, and adults.
Sing with the Commodores No. 1
Roger Blais & Douglas Tunstell 1951 10 min
The Commodores sing Aunt Rhoda, Polly Wolly Doodle, Sweet Genevieve, Loakie's Boat and I've Been Working on the Railroad. The words of the last four songs appear on screen for audience sing-along.
Portrait of the Artist--As an Old Lady
Gail Singer 1982 27 min
Paraskeva Clark, artist, socialist, feminist, is her own woman at her own cost. This film is a cameo of an irascible and oftentimes touching artist whose work has won her a place in exhibitions and private collections. Born in Russia in 1898, she eventually married a Canadian and moved to Toronto. Because her canvases reflect a strong social conscience, she had to struggle hard to earn a place in the nation's ultra-conservative galleries.
Hugh MacLennan: Portrait of a Writer
Robert Duncan 1982 57 min
A portrait of and tribute to the author who, with the publication of Barometer Rising in 1941, set a precedent in Canadian literature by writing about Canadian topics and places and, in so doing, paved the way for a thriving national literary movement. Through the use of still photographs, archival footage and interviews, this documentary traces seven decades of MacLennan's public and private life--as a young boy in Nova Scotia, brought up in a strict Presbyterian family of Scottish descent, as a Rhodes scholar at Oxford, as a professor at McGill University, and as the author of seven novels and numerous essays. Also featured in the film are several readings from MacLennan's work.
Wintersong
Ben Low 1976 7 min
This film is a day in the life of one woman, and how she moves through it, as told in a song.
Universities at War
1944 11 min
Canadian universities made many contributions to the war effort through research and applications in many disciplines including engineering, medicine, psychiatry, chemistry, agriculture and sociology. Many of these developments were also envisioned as having important peacetime applications.
City Under Pressure
Theodore Conant 1965 17 min
A case study of municipal government and the influence of citizens acting as a group. The case study is that of Edmonton, but the problems shown are those of many cities: urban renewal, traffic congestion, zoning, etc.
Challenge: Science Against Cancer
Morten Parker 1950 32 min
How far have scientists advanced toward solving the riddle of cancer, and what are the key problems now facing them? To explain the enormous complexity of the problem, the film traces briefly the growth and multiplication of a single fertilized cell into an adult man, and asks why some outlaw cells begin persistent growth after the whole body has reached maturity. Research scientists are shown following up clues with test tube, microscope, controlled diets and other aids that may guide them to the eventual solution. Methods of treatment being used meanwhile for different types of cancer are briefly described. As each new aspect of the disease is revealed, the secret of cancer is seen to be as complex as the universe itself, and the quest for its solution one of the greatest adventures on which a scientist can embark.
Feeling of Hostility
Robert Anderson 1948 31 min
Dramatizes the factors producing resentment and hostility in personal relationships. In the story of Clare we see how the death of her father and the later remarriage of her mother discouraged her from seeking affectional relationships with others. Although successful at college and in her business career, she feels the lack of fellowship and understanding. The factors behind this emotional inadequacy are reviewed by a psychiatrist.
Feelings of Depression
Stanley Jackson 1950 30 min
How and why feelings of depression carry over from childhood to overshadow adulthood are explained in the case of John Murray, an industrious and conscientious businessman. As his case history unfolds we see how persisting reactions to early emotional problems render him incapable of enjoying a happy, normal life.
The Feeling of Rejection
Robert Anderson 1947 20 min
The case history of Margaret, a 23-year-old girl who has physical disorders with no physical causes. A psychiatrist shows her the root of her troubles--childhood overprotection and discouragement of her efforts to express herself, resulting in a crippling fear of failure and a complete inability to assert herself. When Margaret understands her problem, she develops new and healthier habits of behaviour.
Crossroads--Three Jazz Pianists
Martin Duckworth 1988 27 min
Shot in 1987 at the Montréal International Jazz Festival, this documentary film presents musical performances and conversations between three jazz pianists with remarkably different styles--Soviet Leonid Chizhik, Black Montrealer Oliver Jones, and French-Canadian Jean Beaudet. It introduces viewers to the diversity of interpretation within today's jazz world, explores the roots of modern jazz and the specific formative influences on the musicians profiled, and reaches for a definition of twentieth-century jazz.
Pitchmen
Barry Greenwald 1985 52 min
If you've ever bought a wonder wallet, a food slicer, a canapé maker, a patty stacker, a miracle brush or a super knife, you may know that the CNE, the Calgary Stampede, and virtually every home show, car show, craft show, fall fair and ploughing match in Canada has at least one thing in common. At hallway intersections and bleacher exits work the second cousins of the carnival barker, the crowd pleasers and teasers, jugglers of people, product and pitch: the point-of-sales professionals known as pitchmen. This documentary looks at the psychology of the impulse sale and provides a view of the world of commerce, salesmanship and advertising at the grass-roots level.
Herzberg
John McAulay 1979 18 min
Gerhard Herzberg, winner of a Nobel Prize in 1971, is a molecular spectroscopist. This film shows Dr. Herzberg in his laboratory at the National Research Council in Ottawa where, with the aid of highly sophisticated instruments, he tracks down elusive bits of matter that are the keys to discovering what the planets, stars and the universe are made of.
The Research Director
Ronald Weyman 1954 18 min
A description of the work of a research director of a United Steel Workers Union in Canada. The painstaking research and analyses of economic information, and the arrangement of arguments that lie beneath the negotiations of labour unions for better wages and working conditions are shown.
The Shop Steward
Morten Parker 1953 21 min
A dramatized presentation of the role of the shop steward in the effective day-to-day functioning of free trade unionism, the film begins with the election of machinist Johnny Walachuk as shop steward for the men in his section of a large industrial plant. Continuing, it shows the part the shop steward plays in carrying out the grievance procedures set up by company and union. How Johnny fulfills his responsibility to protect the men who elected him from infractions of the agreement is told in his own words and typifies the function of union shop stewards generally in Canada. Number one of the series.
Dues and the Union
David Bairstow 1953 16 min
The importance of the regular payment of union dues and how they keep a union going is told through the story of a young pipefitter. New to the trade and to his responsibilities as a union member, Frank Weston found there was much to learn about both. Fortunately for him, his boss on the job--a skilled tradesman and a founder of the union--had the patience to teach him. Through him Frank learns the significance of prompt dues payment and the services provided by them, and comes to enjoy the satisfaction of active and interested union membership.
The Mystery of Bay Bulls
Ted Remerowski 1979 13 min
A film on the "SAPPHIRE", the oldest identified wreck in Canadian waters. Parks Canada's underwater archaeology team is responsible for the excavation of the three-hundred-year-old frigate.
Gopher Broke
Peter Thurling 1979 24 min
The Depression era. A small town in Saskatchewan, Dominion Day, 1935. A Royal Canadian Mounted Police sergeant runs up against a group of desperate people who plan to join the Trekkers on their march to Ottawa in protest against the daily wage of twenty cents a day paid by the government to the unemployed in federal labour camps. Kid, the hero, has wrangled a truck and is planning to transport people and food to the Regina meeting place. Because of its illegal nature, their mission is thwarted by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. But only briefly. Humour, suspense and music enliven this short historical drama.
The World of One in Five
James Carney 1967 46 min
A fifth of Canadians live at the subsistence level. This is a look at that world, where the street is home, and where poor shelter, poor food, poor schools and poor health are the only certainties of life. Children, old people, the sick and the drifters are caught in it. It is a world filmed throughout Canada so that people who are not part of it can see it, think about it, and maybe help to change it.
The Nativity Cycle
Fergus McDonell 1956 29 min
The Christmas story, presented in the form of a medieval York mystery, or miracle play, by a cast of junior school children. They follow the text, in verse and prose, used by strolling players five centuries ago when a miracle play meant the portrayal of the mystery of Christ's birth. The story is divided into scenes, with costumes and settings patterned after biblical times. Between acts a children's "angel choir" sings familiar Christmas carols to introduce each scene.
Dinosaurs: Piecing It All Together
Michael McKennirey 1994 47 min
A film on the work of artists and scientists, how they go about reconstructing a world that has long since vanished; and, how they imagine what dinosaurs really looked like.
The Cremation of Sam McGee
Eva Szasz 1990 7 min
Every child's favourite adventure story comes to life in a lavishly illustrated poem by Robert W. Service. Using camera-animated artwork by Yukon artist Ted Harrison, this production is designed to introduce the rich world of Canadian literature in an entertaining way and give students a good foundation for the appreciation of art.
Beyond the Sun
Rick Therrien 1987 17 min
Margaret Peterson is a retired painter, now living in Victoria, British Columbia, where this production was shot. The film explores the psyche of the painter through her paintings, through interviews, through an interpretive commentary by the director of the film, and the improvised riffs of a saxophone soloist. The film is a scrapbook of ideas, memories, opinions, interpretations and paintings that render the artist eventful rather than biographical. Beyond the Sun reveals a character very much attracted to primitive religion and a painter drawn to colour abstraction, both qualities typical of the 'beat' movement of the 1940s and 50s.
Hoodoo McFiggin's Christmas
Eva Szasz 1995 8 min
Based on the short story by Stephen Leacock, this is a satirical camera-animated story about Christmas expectations and the loss of innocence. Young Hoodoo has bought his parents cigars and a brooch for Christmas. As he opens his presents expectantly on Christmas morning, he keeps his hopes up until the end--will the next gift from Santa Claus be a pair of skates, a puppy dog, Noah's Ark, a sleigh or a drum...? When none of the gifts meets his expectations, he decides to do things differently next year.
Eye Witness No. 27
1950 11 min
Halifax's Junior Bengal Lancers: The youngest riding team in Canada gives a spectacular exhibition of horsemanship. Where the Big Ones Grow Bigger and Bigger: Great Slave Lake gives sport to the businessman who comes in by air to battle with the fighting lake trout. From Jobs and Schools to Swimming Pools: Twenty girls of the Peterborough Ornamental Swimming Club give an exhibition of synchronized swimming. Alberta Blitzes Prairie Killers: Alberta farmers hunt and shoot coyotes, predators of livestock and poultry, from swift-flying light aircraft.
Sub-Igloo
James de B. Domville & Joseph MacInnis 1973 19 min
Film report from a Canadian scientific expedition that put a plastic bubble on the floor of the Arctic Ocean to serve as workshop and rest station for scientists working below the Arctic ice. What it took, in both planning and on-the-spot improvisation, to chop through the heavy ice, and to lower and anchor the huge dome in place in the dark and cold of Resolute Bay, is fully illustrated by film and commentary.
Making Music for Animation
2011 15 min
Luigi Allemano is an animator, musician, composer, teacher and sound designer. In this workshop, he presents several short animation films in various stages of music production, demonstrating the process of creating music for animated film. Using interactive exercises and discussion, Luigi offers musicians some tricks of the trade for composing music for animation. This master class is also aimed at animators, covering effective ways to communicate, collaborate and create with music composers
Child, Part 1: Jamie, Ethan and Marlon: The First Two Months
Robert Humble 1973 28 min
He has just made his debut into the world. How does he shape up? In this first film, a pediatrician explains what he looks for when he gives a newborn infant his first physical checkup--testing reflexes, muscle tone, eye movement, etc. Three babies are observed, first in hospital, then at home in the care of their parents.
Child, Part 2: Jamie, Ethan and Keir: 2-14 Months
Robert Humble 1973 28 min
The world at toddler's eye level. For months a baby lies in his crib looking at all those things just beyond his reach. Then he learns to move about, to crawl, to stand--and suddenly all those things are his to touch, to taste. This film observes a baby's natural curiosity, his way of 'getting into things' as part of the experience of learning and adapting. Differences in behaviour of the three babies are noted.
Child, Part 3: Debbie and Robert: 12-24 Months
Robert Humble 1974 28 min
Trial and error and challenge, and the beginnings of communication. Robert is a little older than Debbie; both are of the same family. Both like to experiment, to copy and explore, but sometimes their aims run counter to one another. Their behaviour in this film is typical of the second year of life and illustrates the process of learning that goes on through every waking hour, and the kind of guidance a parent can give.
Child, Part 4: Kathy and Ian: Three-Year-Olds
Robert Humble 1977 28 min
By the age of three children become aware of themselves as unique. This happens through their continuing interaction with parents, siblings and friends. This film explores these relationships and the resulting development within the child.
Child, Part 5: 4 Years - 6 Years
Robert Humble 1978 27 min
By the age of four the child is curious about the world around him. To find out, he is asking thousands of questions. He is also learning not to be afraid. This film shows children in learning situations: on a nature hike; handling animals and other creatures; dealing with their peers. One particularly interesting example is that of Ingrid and Helen, twins who look alike but act differently.
Feux Follets
Jean-Claude Labrecque 1966 9 min
Les Feux Follets (Will-o'-the-Wisps) was founded as an amateur dance group in Montréal. It grew into a professional company. In this film the group performs two dances that demonstrate the dancers' virtuosity: the first, an interpretation by the non-Indigenous troupe of a First Nations dance described as a "Plains betrothal dance"; the second, a more frenetic exhibition of go-go dancing.
Alain Dubreuil, Alchemist
Manon Barbeau 2002 26 min
A veritable demolition artist, Alain saves what he can from the wrecking ball, salvaging disused and discarded items and magically infusing them with new life. The scrap yard is his treasure trove. Based only on his fertile imagination, eschewing any kind of preconceived plan, he creates wondrous objects and edifices. An old warehouse becomes his home. A mothballed shipyard serves as a gigantic movie set, further feeding his dreams... until his lease is up and the authorities insist the buildings must come down. But Alain is already off searching for another abandoned structure vast enough to accommodate his soaring vision.
Chair of Gold
Thomas Farley 1956 30 min
In this film, Jack Scott, a Vancouver newspaper columnist, visits Bolivia, South America, to bring us a report on conditions in that country and on the technical assistance program undertaken in the late 1950s by member countries of the United Nations, including Canada. We hear from Canada's Dr. Hugh Keenleyside, who headed a U.N. Commission, and from specialists from other countries who are helping to create a new economy for Bolivia.
Wow
Claude Jutra 1969 1 h 34 min
Prompted by the filmmaker, nine teenagers individually act out their secret dreams and, between times, talk about their world as they see it. Babette conceives of herself as an abbess defending her fortress, a convent; Michelle is transported in a dream of love where all time ceases; Philippe is the revolutionary, defeating all the institutions that plague him, and so on, through all their fantasies. All the actual preoccupations of youth are raised: authority, drugs, social conflict, sex. With English subtitles.
Jack Bush
Murray Battle 1979 56 min
The late Canadian painter Jack Bush said he painted "from the belly." Born in Montreal in 1909, he earned his living as a commercial artist until his work gained recognition in the New York art market in 1968. In an interview he gave before his death, Bush talks about his life, his work, and the development of art in Canada over the past 25 years. Exhibitions of his work are shown, in particular a retrospective at which he and his friend Clement Greenberg, noted New York art critic, talk about his paintings.
Pilots on the Way Home
Priit Pärn & Olga Pärn 2014 16 min
Having suffered the loss of their plane, three pilots inexplicably find themselves stranded in the middle of the desert. While following the perilous and unpredictable course that will ultimately lead them home, they fall prey to visions and must confront the siren call of their own strange fantasies.

With Pilots on the Way Home, Priit and Olga Pärn (Divers in the Rain) have created a new, satirical meditation on male-female relations. The film tackles masculinity and the male psyche with the same pointed sense of the absurd that has marked Priit Pärn’s previous films. Pilots on the Way Home is also a journey through time and space, and to the universal sources of artistic eroticism. Olga Pärn is a master of the art of animating sand, giving Priit Pärn’s unique line drawings a warm and subtle texture reminiscent of etching. Her work is perfectly matched to the impassioned beats of this tale.
Farm Electrification
Evelyn Cherry 1946 21 min
A farming community organizes to obtain hydro power under Manitoba's rural electrification plan. Energetic canvassing wins over those hesitant to share, for the good of all, the initial expense. The abundant return in comfort, convenience, efficiency and financial advantage is described in concluding sequences.
A Score for Women's Voices
Sophie Bissonnette 2002 1 h 26 min
Between March and October 2000, millions of people around the world took to the streets to denounce poverty and violence against women. The historic World March of Women was a bold initiative of the Québec Federation of Women and represented a turning point in global solidarity.

Director Sophie Bissonnette invited five filmmakers from around the world to cover the march. She also asked each one to film an innovative project. In Senegal a community battles female genital mutilation through education. In Australia a women's circus teaches survivors of sexual assault to become skilled performers. In India a group of low-caste women mediate domestic disputes in informal women's courts. Native women in Ecuador offer leadership training programs to create women leaders. In the United States, Linda Carney describes why she founded Survival Inc. for poor women in Boston: this wealthy city refused her and her son welfare benefits unless she quit her minimum-wage job.

Set against the backdrop of a song, A Score for Women's Voices ends at the UN, where women deliver 5 million cards signed during the marches. Their goal? To change the world!

Some subtitles.
Buying Fever
1943 3 min
A victory loan film urging people not to sell their Victory Bonds. The Plugger family happily dreams of the day after the war when they will be able to make dreams come true with the money from their bonds. But the temptation to cash them in immediately to buy luxury goods is strong. The Pluggers, however, overcome temptation, and are once more on the road to victory.
Mutual Aid
1944 5 min
An animated short about the work of Canada's Mutual Aid Board and the necessity for this cooperation between the Allied countries.
Providing Goods for You
1944 4 min
A short animated film that explains the necessity of curtailing the consumption of civilian goods in wartime.
Story of Wartime Controls
1942 1 min
In Canada, a democracy at war, civilian needs must be reduced. There's less to buy, more to spend. Prices go up. To prevent inflation, a price ceiling is fixed and rationing introduced. Money is needed to win the war. The motto: lend your savings to Canada.
The Missus Beats Him to It
1943 1 min
The film emphasizes the wartime need for remodelling old clothes, to avoid the purchase of new garments.
What, No Beef?
1943 1 min
Plugger is annoyed at seeing empty butcher's shelves. Beef is needed, explains Mrs. Plugger, to feed the soldiers overseas. Plugger cheerfully buys a chicken.
The Land That Devours Ships
Bill Mason 1984 58 min
For almost a century and a half, Her Majesty's Ship Breadalbane lay wrecked and forgotten under the Arctic ice. In the spring of 1983, noted undersea explorer Dr. Joseph MacInnis led a team of twenty men on one of the most difficult, dangerous and unforgettable undersea adventures of the century--to put a diver on board the sunken vessel and recover some artifacts. This film, introduced by H.R.H. Prince Charles, provides a stunning visual account of this historic expedition.
Miller Brittain
Kent Martin 1981 57 min
For Miller Brittain, variously described as a mystic, a war hero, a madman and a drunk, there was only one constant--art. Born in Saint John, New Brunswick, in 1912, he painted most of the time in or near that city. Personal, social and religious upheavals were all reflected in his art, in aching, obsessive works that people didn't understand, and much of the time didn't buy, though now they are worth thousands. The film is a powerful reconstruction of the life and career of this misunderstood Maritime painter, and his relation to other Canadian artists.
The Boat that Ian Built
Andy Thomson 1974 28 min
The amazing success story of the Laser, a thirteen-foot sailboat built by Ian Bruce of Pointe Claire, Québec, and of Performance Sailcraft, the company he formed to produce and market it. Simply designed, durably built of fiberglass, it is a pleasure craft that has brought summer sailing within everyone's reach on coastal and inland waters around the world.
I Want to Be an Engineer
Beverly Shaffer 1983 28 min
This film provides a lively introduction to the professional and personal lives of three female engineers--just a few of the growing number of women who are opting for "non-traditional" jobs. Their enthusiasm for and commitment to their work makes them convincing role models for high-school girls who might be considering engineering as a career possibility. As well, the film is effective in fostering positive attitudes towards women working in the traditionally male professions of science and technology. Support material available.
Temiscaming, Québec
Martin Duckworth 1975 1 h 4 min
Temiscaming, Québec is the story of a town's struggle to survive after its main source of employment, the CIP mill, closed down. Part I tells what steps the workers, townspeople and ex-CIP managers took to reopen a mill co-owned and co-managed by the workers; Part II explains the new corporate ownership of the mill, how it works, and its growing pains. This is a film about ownership of the Canadian economy, industrial democracy.
Screaming Jets
Jack Olsen 1951 11 min
Canada's progress in jet aviation is seen in relation to that of other countries. Aerial exhibitions show the performance of jet aircraft produced by countries foremost in the field, particularly Britain's Comet and her Sapphire-powered jet fighter, American stratojet bombers and Russia's fast-climbing MiG-15. At Canadair we see production of the Royal Canadian Air Force Sabre jets; at the Avro plant the Jetliner transport and the sleek, black night fighter CF-100. The film concludes with glimpses of aircraft of the future.
A Day in the National Parks
Suzanne Allard 1978 6 min
An impressionistic overview of Canada's national parks. The film creates a composite landscape as it travels from the East Coast to the West.
Auyuittuq
1980 5 min
Pictures from Auyuittuq National Park on Baffin Island in the Northwest Territories.
A Day in Point Pelée
Francis Mankiewicz 1978 6 min
Located in Ontario, Point Pelée National Park attracts birds in its long grasses, and brilliant Monarch butterflies on its trees. Wooden walkways through the marsh facilitate access for numerous visitors. A film without words.
Steeltown
Rex Tasker & Wolf Koenig 1966 55 min
A portrait of Hamilton, the Pittsburgh or Birmingham of Canada. This is a rich and colourful subject that encourages imaginative treatment on the screen. The heart of the city is the immense complex of furnaces and rolling mills, but nearby are the lake, the mountain, and the rich fruit farms. How the work of the steel mills touches the city and its surroundings is shown in many views during both day and night.
The Rise and Fall of English Montreal
William Weintraub 1993 50 min
In the past 20 years, some 300,000 English-speaking people have left Montréal, convinced they had no future in a Québec that had become increasingly French, increasingly nationalistic. In this video we meet some of the people who are moving away and recall the days, in the last century, when there were more English-speaking people than French in Montréal. The video poses a controversial question: Will the city, with its youth leaving in great numbers, become a community of the elderly, unable to renew itself?
Breakdown
Robert Anderson 1951 42 min
The story of a young woman's schizophrenic breakdown, and of her recovery in a modern mental hospital. Inherent in the film is an appeal for greater public understanding of mental illness and for the removal of the stigma that still surrounds it. The film presents the case of a seemingly well-adjusted young woman, showing the disintegration of her personality and the psychiatric treatment that follows.
Henry Larsen's Northwest Passages
1962 27 min
Norwegian-born Superintendent Henry Larsen of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police was the first man to navigate the Northwest Passage in both directions. In this film he relates anecdotes of his voyages in the tiny schooner, the St. Roch.
Henry Larsen
1965 16 min
Suitable for schools but of interest to all audiences, this film recounts the epic story of Canada's Arctic explorer, Superintendent Henry Larsen of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. He was the first man in history to navigate the Northwest Passage from west to east, and the first to complete the hazardous voyage both ways. Seen in the film is the little Royal Canadian Mounted Police patrol ship the St. Roch, in which he made the crossings.
The Land
Rex Tasker & Jean-Claude Labrecque 1969 8 min
This film presents a breath-taking view of Canada from coast to coast. Besides showing the varied terrain, from craggy coast to towering glacier, the film illustrates something of the development of the land from its virgin state to today's intense and complex industrial exploitation. Filmed for the most part from a low-flying aircraft, there is evidence of space everywhere: in the caribou streaming across the snowy tundra, in the serried ranges of the Pacific mountains, in the distant horizons of lakes and seas, and in the spacious grain fields of the prairies. Equal to the grandiose natural scenes are the projects of Canadian industry, such as Quebec's great Manicouagan power dam, and the endless ribbon of the Trans-Canada Highway. This view of the land is surprising in its diversity.
Stiletto
Louise Leroux 1999 46 min
Stiletto. The very word seduces. Pedestal of desire, ultimate symbol of feminine allure, this high-heeled pump is firmly entrenched in the popular imagination and in our lives. Stiletto is the filmmaker's search for new answers. Her itinerary takes us into the worlds of an erudite historian, a sensible podologist, a fashion designer, and an Italian manufacturer. She has scrutinized this aphrodisiacal pump from all angles. Stiletto strikes off in new directions and replaces traditional feminist thinking with innovative ideas.
The Brokers
Peter Raymont 1987 29 min
This film demystifies the complex but fascinating world of the investment business. We are given a privileged view of one of Canada's largest brokerage houses, McLeod, Young, Weir and Co. Ltd., and we also hear from some people who understand the complexities of the Montréal, Toronto and Vancouver stock exchanges. We are given a glimpse of a business that forms the basis for capitalism in North America, an instant barometer of the health of the economy.
The Sea Got in Your Blood
David Millar 1965 27 min
A taste of the sea and people who sail it from the ports of the Atlantic Bluenose coast. Some of the sailors seen and heard in this black and white film are famous: Bill Roue who designed the first Bluenose schooner (still on the Canadian dime) and Captain Angus Walter who brought her to victory.
Demon and Marvels
Bertrand Langlois 1977 7 min
This film depicts a world where space is geometric, noise is absent, and nothing happens until a small white cube comes bumping along, stirring up movement where before there was none. Chased by a wicked demon, the cube symbolizes the inner struggle that goes on inside each one of us: the confrontation, or evasion, of one's private demons. Film without words.
Freedom Outraged
2009 1 h 13 min
Four people who were struggling for a separate Quebec in the early '70s offer us an insight into their social and political engagement. Discussions, archival footage and the songs of Plume Latraverse provide a deeper understanding of Pierre Vallières, Charles Gagnon, Francis Simard and Robert Comeau. In French with English subtitles.
Harry in Wonderland
Barbara Willis-Sweete 1990 28 min
This portrait of Canadian composer Harry Freedman shows his creative imagination at work and how he puts it into practical application in the composition and production of a major new work--Fragments of Alice--a musical adaptation of Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland.
Beaver Dam
F.R. Crawley 1960 15 min
The great appeal of this film is watching the beaver at work, busily and cheerfully demonstrating the characteristics for which it is famous. Sometimes, however, the beaver's industry runs counter to the plans of people. When the beaver's dam floods their father's hayfield, two boys devise a plan to save the beaver from their father's displeasure.
A Hospital Crucified
Renée Blanchar 2007 1 h 1 min
On March 2, 2004, Bernard Lord's Conservative government announces that the hospital in Caraquet, New Brunswick, will be converted to a community health centre. Considering the government's decision unfair, the people of the region rally to save the health care services to which they feel entitled. Despite their year-and-a-half-long struggle, the Hôpital de l'Enfant-Jésus is closed. In recording the chronology of the events, Renée Blanchar plunges into the heart of the action with an urgent need to speak out against injustice. The result is a very human film about solidarity. In French with English subtitles.
Men of the Deeps
John Walker 2003 51 min
Men of the Deeps is a moving portrait of a group of former Cape Breton miners gathered together by their love of song. They are all members of the Men of the Deeps chorus, whose performances of traditional and contemporary songs evoke their working lives as miners.
Trans-Canada Journey
Graham Parker 1962 28 min
A jetliner spans the miles, sheering through clouds to open sky and scenic vistas of the provinces below. Glimpses of town and country, of people of many ethnic origins, of a resourceful and industrious nation--impressions it would take days and weeks to gather at first hand--are brought to you in this vivid 1800-kilometer panorama.
Each Day That Comes
Graham Parker 1966 27 min
A glimpse into the nature of loneliness. Frances Hyland plays the part of a small-town girl who enjoys position and respect in her community as the owner of a successful dress shop, but who wonders if marriage might not have been a better choice. Disturbed by thoughts of what might have been, she resolves to live each day as it comes.
Our Last Days ... In Moscow
Martin Duckworth 1987 55 min
Pianists Kuo-Yen of Taiwan and Pierre Jasmin of Québec met and fell in love while studying music in Vienna. The film is a "letter" from Pierre to Kuo-Yen, who has made the difficult decision to return to her native land. Jasmin is sending her the images, words, and music of their last days as a couple ... in Moscow. They had come there for Kuo-Yen to compete in the 8th Tchaikovsky Piano Competition; how she fared determined her future. While pivoting on the drama of an international music competition and the sorrow inherent in parting, the film is also full of laughter, light, and love.
Age of the Buffalo
Austin Campbell 1964 14 min
A vivid recollection of the free west of the North American Indigenous Peoples and the vast herds of buffalo that once thundered across the plains. From paintings of the mid-1800s, the animation camera creates a most convincing picture of the buffalo hunt, both as the Indigenous People and, disastrously, the white hunters practised it.
Aircrew
Thomas Farley 1954 45 min
This film takes us to a number of Royal Canadian Air Force training centres to show how recruits from all parts of Canada become the key men at the controls of their country's aerial defence.
Eye Witness No. 81
Alvin Goldman & Hector Lemieux 1955 10 min
New Life for Ghost Town Miners: Aided by the provincial government, jobless mine workers of Alberta move from Nordegg and other abandoned coal-mining areas to obtain new work elsewhere in Canada. School for Frogmen: Officers and men of the Royal Canadian Navy's Operational Diving Unit at Halifax undergo rigorous training courses to equip them for sub-surface duties.
Guilty Men
Tom Daly 1945 11 min
The chief war criminals, and the varied ways in which their careers came to an end.
John Wyre - Drawing on Sound
Niv Fichman 1991 26 min
A half-hour documentary portrait of Canadian composer, John Wyre.
River (Planet Earth)
Peter Raymont 1977 27 min
River (Planet Earth) is a student's audio-visual presentation of a river system and the importance of water to humans, to his professor who hates to be bored. Both serious and humorous, the film shows how water sustains life, feeds industry, provides power and irrigates the land. It shows how water is inverted, dammed, used and expelled. It talks of pollution. The film demonstrates how water affects the economy, sociology and ecology of a country.
Silence & Storm
Jeremiah Hayes 1995 52 min
Every summer, Camp Weredale, located in the Laurentian mountains north of Montreal, is home to "system kids," offering them a safe haven and a chance to heal lives scarred by abuse and neglect. Silence & Storm documents two months in the lives of ten kids at this unique summer camp. For some, it was an opportunity to re-learn their capacity to be kids and just play; for others, it was a chance to come to grips with the painful memories that haunt them. Despite backgrounds steeped in pain and disappointment, these young people were able to reveal themselves and express their hopes, fears, anger and loneliness. The result is a sensitive, revealing portrait of an unusual program for youth in care.
Flying Skis
Harry Foster 1951 9 min
In this sports short, Bill Stern, an American sportscaster, describes Laurentian sporting events. First to perform is Pete Curran, a professional figure skater and one-time partner of Barbara Ann Scott. For those who can hang on to the traces, the Scandinavian sport of skijoring, in which a person on skis is pulled along by a horse or vehicle, provides fun and excitement. A slow-motion camera follows Alex Foster as he demonstrates his skill. The film ends with an exhibition of skiing.
K.C.I.: Beyond the Three R's
Scott Barrie 1982 27 min
Kitchener Waterloo Collegiate and Vocational School embodies some of the best features of public secondary education today. The school encourages students to learn beyond the classroom through innovative programs like Cooperative Education or Community Involvement, and welcomes adults into the school to complete their education or upgrade their skills. Through candid views of school activities, classroom discussions, and interviews with staff and students, the film takes its audience through a busy day at a large urban high school. It approaches many of the questions in the current debate on education.
Aqua Rondo
Jacques Bensimon 1969 10 min
Synchronized swimming, one of the most graceful sports, is a natural for the colour screen. This film, using multi-image photography, shows some of Canada's best water ballet in team and solo free-style competition.
Fur Country
Eduard Buckman 1942 22 min
The historic post of Moose Factory on James Bay is still a centre of Canada's fur trade. The camera follows Cree trapper George McLoed as he goes out from the post to visit his trap lines. Bivouacing in the open, in bitter cold, he traps mink and beaver, skillfully skinning the animals and drying the rich pelts. Back at the post, he sells his furs to the Hudson's Bay trader.
Eternal Earth
Larry Weinstein 1987 28 min
One of the Canadian Composers series, this documentary introduces viewers to the intricacies of contemporary classical music by following Chinese-Canadian composer Alexina Louie as she writes a symphony, The Eternal Earth, commissioned by the Toronto Symphony Orchestra's musical director, Andrew Davis. Proclaimed Composer of the Year in 1986, Louie is known for her eclectic approach and blended musical heritage from both Chinese and Western influences. The film follows Louie between rehearsal spaces and the streets of Chinatown, including the world première performance of the piece at Toronto's Roy Thomson Hall in May, 1986. It illustrates the process whereby musical notation is transformed into the rich, harmonious textures and sounds that audiences hear.
The Paradox of Norval Morrisseau
Duke Redbird & Henning Jacobsen 1974 28 min
In this revealing study of Norval Morrisseau, filmed as he works among the lakes and woodlands of his ancestors, we see a remarkable Indigenous artist who emerged from a life of obscurity in the North American bush to become one of Canada's most renowned painters. Morrisseau the man is much like his paintings: vital and passionate, torn between his Ojibway heritage and the influences of the white man's world. Jack Pollock, the Toronto art gallery owner who discovered Morrisseau's paintings in the early 1960s, comments on what makes them so unique.
Sea Sprites
Roger Blais 1961 5 min
A group of young women at Québec City display the synchronized swimming that made them Canadian champions. All amateurs, swimming for exercise, fun and relaxation, these balletic mermaids have an impressive collection of trophies.
People and Science: Deadlines
Jefferson Lewis 1987 11 min
While preparing a program on a proposed water-diversion project, a television journalist must come to terms with the fact that she must present an unbiased look at the positive and negative effects of damming a river.
Hope
Thomas Buchan & Stuart Reaugh 2008 58 min
Hope, from first time documentary filmmakers Stuart Reaugh and Thomas Buchan, follows artist Ken Paquette, his partner Winnie Peters and their five boys (ages four through fifteen) as they struggle to cope during a year of wrenching change.

The family lives on the Schkam Native Reserve, across the river from the town of Hope. The town is a transitory place at the junction of three highways. After 18 years together, Ken and Winnie's troubled relationship dissolves when Rick, a tattooed ex-con, moves in and assumes the role of stepfather. Winnie's eldest son Kenny leaves the home. Ken settles in town, where he sells his paintings outside the local pub, earning enough for rent and the occasional trip to McDonalds with his kids. Over the course of four seasons, the family cycles through poverty, addiction, violence and love, but when winter bleeds into spring, a final confrontation sparks irrevocable change.

With painterly attention to the ordinary details of life in an interior town - dark mountains shrouded in mist, rotting abandoned cars amidst the vaulted green spaces of the forest - the film captures two very different senses of time. The permanence of the land set against an explosive human drama that exists for fragile moments, before life and circumstances move on.

The directors lived alongside the family over the course of a year, becoming an intimate part of events. This style of on-the-ground filmmaking provides a startling level of immediacy. The film imposes no external narrative; each family member offers a unique voice, describing their frustration and anger with each other, as well as their love and dreams for a better life. Raw honesty and a deep humanism explode stereotypes, capturing the joy and laughter, as well as the pain of this complex family, in a fully realized portrait of people and place.
Meditation in Motion
Irene Angelico 1978 10 min
A short lyrical document about an ancient Eastern discipline, this film moves from the streets of China, where people practice Tai-Chi daily, to North America, where the same movements are executed by a solitary figure in a park.

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