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Martin Duckworth (15)
Martin Duckworth
Martin Duckworth is an acclaimed Canadian documentary director and cinematographer. Raised during the Great Depression, he began his film career at the age of 30, at the height of the hippie revolution in the sixties. His award-winning films are both artful and socially conscious. Martin travelled the globe, directed 30 films and was the cinematographer for 100—through which he saw the horrors of war in Vietnam, Cambodia, Japan and Afghanistan. In 2015, he was awarded the Government of Quebec’s Prix Albert-Tessier, one of the province’s highest honours, given to individuals who’ve made an outstanding contribution to Quebec cinema.
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Passing Through SwedenMartin Duckworth 1969 21 minA film critic of one of Sweden's daily newspapers says of this film by Martin Duckworth, "Never before have I seen a film that so intensely interpreted the experience of Swedish surroundings ... an "atmosphere film" in which all the expression is in the pictures." -
AccidentMartin Duckworth & Patrick A. Crawley 1973 16 minThe subject is the actual crash of a small plane, which one man survived. Pat Crawley describes his view of the world now, after being on the edge of death. It is, he says, like being continually stoned--neutral but more fully aware, accepting life without bias, a condition he feels we are all coming to.
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Cell 16Martin Duckworth 1971 14 minThis short documentary portrays the complex effects of incarceration on individuals. Prisons, the film shows, lock men within themselves, depriving their minds of normal life experiences, confiscating their humanity.
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Acting BlindMartin Duckworth 2006 52 minThis touching documentary follows a cast of blind and visually impaired actors as they prepare Dancing to Beethoven, a play about blindness. The film takes us deep into the lives of the actors. We hear stories of their shock and disbelief at first losing sight and of their struggles coping with a life without it. We hear them talk about grieving and pining for the visual world. They tell the moving story of how this play is itself a victory, a type of salvation, for each of them. By opening night, at the renowned Place des Arts in Montreal, they are a close-knit cast, well-honed and ready to step out of the wings and into the light.
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The WishMartin Duckworth 1970 27 minThis documentary short introduces us to 8-year-old identical twins as they explore their family background. Filmed by the twins' father at their grandparents' lakeside cottage, The Wish is a lyrical study of childhood and family roots.
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Oliver Jones in AfricaMartin Duckworth 1990 53 minOliver Jones, one of Canada's foremost jazz pianists, tours Nigeria with his bassist and drummer, discovering in Africa the roots of much of today's music. Hearing and absorbing the musical sources of blues, spirituals, calypso rhythms and more, he reflects that for a Black jazz artist, a trip to Africa is a voyage home.
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Untouched and PureMort Ransen , Christopher Cordeaux , … 1970 46 minThis is a very unusual and original film, breaking new ground in filmmaking methods as well as in ways of viewing things. All the usual facts about Sweden have been given a hundred times over, and often in better forms than film can offer, but in this film the director has launched into a form of cinematic observation and commentary that offers an entirely new experience of things Swedish.
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Temiscaming, QuébecMartin Duckworth 1975 1 h 4 minTemiscaming, 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.
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Crossroads--Three Jazz PianistsMartin Duckworth 1988 27 minShot 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.
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No More Hibakusha!Martin Duckworth 1983 55 minHibakusha is the Japanese word for the survivors of the American bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This powerful and moving documentary focuses on a few of the eighty hibakusha who journeyed from Japan to New York in June, 1982, to take part in peace demonstrations held to coincide with the Second United Nations Special Session on Disarmament. They came to urge the nations of the world to prevent nuclear war. Instead of concentrating on the physical suffering of the victims, the film reveals the mental anguish of the hibakusha, who are still haunted by nightmares.
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Riel CountryMartin Duckworth 1996 49 minThis documentary from Martin Duckworth features young adults from two distinct Winnipeg neighbourhoods on either side of the Red River who struggle to overcome geographical and cultural barriers. High school students from the predominantly Indigenous North End and their peers from the Francophone district of St. Boniface work together to produce a play on the origins of the Métis.
Their collaboration raises questions about how these youths foresee their role and place within their respective communities and how these minority communities co-exist with the predominant culture. The film also tackles issues of intolerance, racism and discrimination. -
The Battle of Rabaska - Chronicle of an Environmental ConflictMagnus Isacsson & Martin Duckworth 2008 1 h 18 minThis documentary is the story of citizen activists opposing a methane tanker terminal practically on their doorstep. Lucid and compelling, the film shows citizen action pitted against powerful lobbies and reminds us to be vigilant faced with Quebec's environmental and energy-related issues over the coming years.
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No More HiroshimaMartin Duckworth 1984 25 minThis short documentary depicts the stories of two hibakusha, survivors of the 1945 atomic bomb attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This film follows them on their mission to New York as representatives of the Japanese Peace Movement at the second United Nations Special Session on Disarmament held in June 1982.
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Our Last Days ... In MoscowMartin Duckworth 1987 55 minPianists 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.
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Return to DresdenMartin Duckworth 1986 27 minIn 1945, Great Britain and the United States organized a bombing raid that devastated the ancient city of Dresden. This short documentary returns exactly 40 years after its destruction and celebrates its renaissance with the re-opening of one of the most beautiful opera houses in Europe. One guest at this gala was the Canadian navigator of one of the bomber planes, returning to Dresden on a mission of peace that brought him face-to-face with the people who were once his enemies.
