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Canada 1946-1991 (59)
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Available in English Options
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Action: The October Crisis of 1970Robin Spry 1973 1 h 27 minThis feature-length documentary looks at those desperate days of October 1970 when Montreal awaited the outcome of FLQ terrorist acts. Using news reports and clips from the time, the film reflects upon the October Crisis and reveals the relief, dismay and defiance people felt when the Canadian army stepped in. -
Artist in MontrealJean Palardy 1954 30 minThis short film introduces us to the "automatistes," followers of an abstract art form that developed in Montreal. The movement, initiated by Paul-Émile Borduas, is explained by the artists themselves when narrator Bruce Ruddick drops in at their cooperative studio. The film also captures painter Paterson Ewen at his home and joins the crowd at L'Échouerie, the artists' rendezvous spot. Dr. Robert Hubbard, chief curator of the National Gallery of Canada, comments on non-objective art in general and automatism in particular.
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British Empire and Commonwealth GamesJack Olsen 1954 11 minThis short documentary presents highlights of the 1954 British Empire and Commonwealth Games. In Vancouver, top-ranking athletes from the far corners of the British Commonwealth competed for new records. The film records outstanding feats in racing, jumping, pole-vaulting, swimming as well as the "miracle mile" duel between John Landy and Roger Bannister.
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Ballet FestivalRoger Blais 1949 11 minFrom the Canada Carries On series, this is a look at Canada's first national Ballet Festival. Amateur companies from Toronto, Montreal, Winnipeg, Ottawa, Hamilton and Vancouver perform at Toronto's Royal Alexander Theatre. An Ottawa company dances Les Sylphides. The Winnipeg Ballet appears in Visages by Walter Kaufman and the Volkoff Ballet of Toronto in Red Ear of Corn by John Weinzweig, both new Canadian works.
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Birth of a Family (Educational Version)Tasha Hubbard 2017 45 minThree sisters and a brother, adopted as infants into separate families across North America, meet together for the first time in this deeply moving documentary by director Tasha Hubbard. Removed from their young Dene mother’s care as part of Canada’s infamous Sixties Scoop, Betty Ann, Esther, Rosalie and Ben were four of the 20,000 Indigenous children taken from their families between 1955 and 1985, to be either adopted into white families or to live in foster care. Now all in middle age, each has grown up in different circumstances, with different family cultures, different values and no shared memories. Birth of a Family follows them through the challenges, trepidations and joys of their first steps towards forming their family. Meeting all together for the first time, they spend a week in Banff, Alberta, sharing what they know about their mother and stories about their lives and the struggles they went through as foster kids and adoptees. As the four siblings piece together their shared history, their connection deepens, bringing laughter with it, and their family begins to take shape.
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Beyond December 6Catherine Fol 1991 28 minOne year after the tragedy that took the lives of fourteen female students, Montreal’s École Polytechnique has returned to something resembling normalcy. Nathalie Provost is a survivor of the shooting at the engineering school. Today, with friends, she opens up. About the tragedy, about feminism. About racism and sexism. About the fact that society has difficulty accepting difference. And, above all, about life, which must go on beyond December 6.
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Birth of a FamilyTasha Hubbard 2017 1 h 19 minBetty Ann, Esther, Rosalie, and Ben were only four of the 20,000 Indigenous Canadian children taken from their families between 1955 and 1985, to be either adopted into white families or live in foster care. As the four siblings piece together their shared history, their connection deepens, and their family begins to take shape.
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The Champions, Part 2: Trappings of PowerDonald Brittain 1978 55 minPart 2 of this 3-part documentary series about Pierre Elliott Trudeau and René Lévesque covers the years between 1967 and 1977, a colourful decade that saw Trudeau win three federal elections, the 1970 October Crisis and the sweeping rise to power of the Parti Québécois.
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Canada at War, Part 12: V Was for Victory1962 27 minApril-August 1945. Hitler had said: 'Whoever lights the torch of war in Europe can wish for nothing but chaos.' By 1945, Germany is beaten. V-Day celebrations verge on the hysterical, but occupying armies uncover the staggering atrocities of Belsen, Auschwitz, and Buchenwald. Franklin D. Roosevelt dies. The world's first atomic bomb is dropped on Japan.
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Challenger: An Industrial RomanceStephen Low 1980 57 minThis feature documentary follows the development of Canadair's super-executive jet. A totally new type of aircraft, it is faster, cheaper to fly, and more comfortable than any other business jet. Would it make it off the drawing board and into the air? The film captures the spirit of the Canadian air transport industry and its attempt to compete with its American counterparts.
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Canada at War, Part 13: The Clouded Dawn1962 27 minAugust 1945 - 1946. Japan surrenders. World War II is over, but the scars are deep. Canadian prisoners are released from Japanese war camps. In Canada, as elsewhere, the monumental task of rehabilitation begins. In Ottawa the Gouzenko case shocks the nation. The trials at Nürenberg begin. The United Nations is formed. Canada, now a much stronger, independent nation, enters the Cold War.
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Camera on Labour No. 4Alvin Goldman 1956 13 minNew Health Service for Garment Workers: Jointly operated by management and union, the Fashion Industries' Health Center in Montréal plays watchdog to the health of International Ladies' Garment Workers Union members through its free diagnostic service. Steelworkers Go to Press: An employee of the Stelco Steel plant in Hamilton, Cecil Lewis doubles as editor of a monthly union newspaper that keeps local members informed of union aims and activities.
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The Champions, Part 1: Unlikely WarriorsDonald Brittain 1978 57 minIn Part 1 of this 3-part documentary series, director Donald Brittain chronicles the early years of Pierre Elliott Trudeau and René Lévesque. From their university days in the 1950s to 1967 when Lévesque left the Liberal Party and Trudeau became the federal Minister of Justice, Brittain attempts to get at the heart of what makes these men so fascinating.
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The Champions, Part 3: The Final BattleDonald Brittain 1986 1 h 27 minThe final instalment of this 3-part documentary series about Pierre Elliott Trudeau and René Lévesque spans the decade between 1976 and 1986. The film reveals the turbulent, behind-the-scenes drama during the Quebec referendum and the repatriation of the Canadian Constitution. In doing so, it also traces both Trudeau's and Lévesque's fall from power.
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Country ThreshingWolf Koenig 1958 30 minThis short documentary records the rural sights and sounds of the Chateauguay Valley of Quebec. The day of the big stationary threshing machine is almost over, as the machine is pushed into obscurity by the combine harvester. But there are still parts of Canada where crops are gathered in the old-fashioned way as the men work out in the fields and the women manage the kitchen. This film offers a rare and charming glimpse into mid-20th-century rural and family life in Canada.
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Circulation à Montréal (Part 1)Bernard Devlin 1955 15 minIn 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.
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The Cat in the BagGilles Groulx 1964 1 h 13 minThrough the coming of age of a twenty-year-old man, this film symbolizes the political coming of age of the people of Québec. In French with English subtitles.
Soundtrack album, John's Coltrane's Blue World, available from Impulse! / Universal Music Enterprises. -
Double HeritageRichard Gilbert 1959 30 minThis documentary from the Salute to Flight series links the barnstormers and bush pilots who explored Canada's vast hinterland with the aviation heroes who flew the Bolingbrokes, Ansons, Mosquitoes and Hurricanes of World War II.
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The Devil at Your HeelsRobert Fortier 1981 1 h 42 minThis feature-length documentary introduces viewers to Ken Carter, a Montreal-born stunt driver who made a living by risking his life. The film shines a light on the intense preparation that led to Carter’s first attempt to jump a car across a mile-wide stretch of the St. Lawrence River – a 5-year period during which the dare-devil raised a million dollars, erected a 10-storey take-off ramp and built a rocket-powered car.
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Epidemic Foot and Mouth Disease: Saskatchewan, 1952Larry Gosnell 1952 16 minA documentary report on the 1952 outbreak of foot-and-mouth in Saskatchewan. It details the effects of the disease on livestock and explains how the epidemic was brought under control. Made for the federal Department of Agriculture.
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Eye Witness No. 401952 11 minThe Eye Witness series is a collection of short documentaries featuring Canadian news stories from the 1940s and '50s. This segment includes Prairie Harbour: The Port of Flowing Grain, a look at the lakehead cities of Fort William and Port Arthur, funnelling centres for western grain on its way to world markets. In Modern Miracle: Surgery is Safe, the appendectomy of patient Henry Brown demonstrates the advances in modern medicine. Co-Op Carpenters: Home-Made Community illustrates the principles behind the cooperative housing program for veterans in Carleton Heights near Ottawa.
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Eye Witness No. 151949 11 minThese vignettes from 1949 cover various aspects of life in Canada and were shown in theatres across the country. Subjects included here are: Man-Made Niagara: the construction of the Des Joachims hydro plant on the Ottawa River adds to Ontario's power resources. Irrigation Revitalizes Dust Bowl: In the southern Alberta drylands, the St. Mary's River is being harnessed to provide life-giving irrigation for prairie crops. Underwater Harvest: Lobster season in New Brunswick provides choice seafoods for epicurean tables.
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Eye Witness No. 28Ronald Weyman , Allen Stark , … 1951 10 minNew Look on Rails: The Montreal Locomotive Works takes on mass manufacture of diesel engines for Canadian railways, using pantograph machines that turn out six steel patterns in one electronic operation. Dedication to the Dance: In the Boris Volkoff School of Ballet in Toronto, long hours of training and exacting routines pay off in the making of professional ballet dancers. Fun in Fur Land: The annual Trappers' Festival at The Pas, Manitoba, complete with a Fur Queen's court and numerous competitions to test the timberline techniques of northerners, ends with the toughest dog derby in Canada.
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Freedom Outraged2009 1 h 13 minFour 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.
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Forgotten WarriorsLoretta Todd 1997 51 minThis documentary introduces us to thousands of Indigenous Canadians who enlisted and fought alongside their countrymen and women during World War II, even though they could not be conscripted. Ironically, while they fought for the freedom of others, they were being denied equality in their own country and returned home to find their land seized. Loretta Todd's poignant film offers forth the testimony of those who were there, and how they managed to heal.
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The Global Struggle for Food1961 28 minA progress report on efforts to find new ways of feeding the Earth's swelling population. Water control, land redistribution and agricultural advances of all kinds are shown as examples of gains being made to stem the tide of hunger.
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Georges P. Vanier: Soldier, Diplomat, Governor GeneralClément Perron 1960 29 minThis short documentary looks at Governor General Georges Vanier: his military service in two world wars, his diplomatic service between the wars and his investiture as Canada's 19th Governor General.
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Glenn Gould - On the RecordRoman Kroitor & Wolf Koenig 1959 29 minThis short documentary follows Glenn Gould to New York City. There, we see the renowned Canadian concert pianist kidding the cab driver, bantering with sound engineers at Columbia Records, and then, alone with the piano, fastidiously recording Bach's Italian Concerto.
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How They Saw Us: Needles and PinsAnn Pearson & Roger Blais 1977 10 minIn this film about a factory seamstress, there is the substitution of glamor for genuine job satisfaction and advancement. The film was made in 1955.
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History on the Run: The Media and the '79 ElectionPeter Raymont 1979 56 minThis documentary examines the media's coverage of the federal election of May 1979. Filmed over a 3-week period, it takes a fascinating look at journalists in action and the politicians who attempt to manipulate the media.
