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Physical Science (32)
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Available in English Options
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23 SkidooJulian Biggs 1964 8 minThis short black-and-white film shows eerie scenes of a downtown without people. The effect is disturbing. The camera shoots familiar urban scenes, without a soul in sight: streets empty, buildings empty, yet everywhere there is evidence of recent life and activity. At the end of the film we learn what has happened. -
BatterySylvain Charbonneau 2000 1 minA clip in the Science Please! collection, Battery uses archival footage, animated illustrations and amusing narration to explain: Why do we get a charge out of batteries?
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The Balgonie BirdmanBrian Duchscherer 1991 8 minA small prairie town has few secrets but in Balgonie, Saskatchewan, Bill Gibson had one. Each night, when most folks were home asleep, Bill was busy in his workshop. You see, Bill had a dream. He was building a flying machine. This short puppet animation tells his story.
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The DefenderStephen Low 1988 54 minThis documentary is about Bob Diemert of Carman, Manitoba, and his dream of building the world's next great fighter plane. His worldwide reputation as a genius at restoring "warbirds" enables him to finance his dream. The Defender is a lively, sometimes wild and funny, tale about a remarkable, modern-day folk hero.
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The Dirt on SoapSylvain Charbonneau 2000 1 minHow soap cleans? Part of the Science Please! collection for children.
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Electromagnetic RadiationSylvain Charbonneau 2001 1 minWhat do X-rays, microwaves and light have in common? Part of the Science Please! collection for children.
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ExplosivesSylvain Charbonneau 2001 1 minAre cows a time bomb just waiting to explode? Part of the Science Please! collection for children.
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For Future GenerationsBoyce Richardson 1985 54 minThis documentary is about the conservation ethic in Canada that led to the national parks systems around the world. Includes interviews with the then-Minister of Natural Resources, Jean Chretien.
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FireSylvain Charbonneau 2001 1 minWhat lights your fire? Part of the Science Please! collection for children.
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GravitySylvain Charbonneau 2001 1 minWhat keeps us down to earth? This clip from Science Please! answers the question.
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Hubert Reeves: Star TellerIolande Cadrin-Rossignol 2002 52 minHubert Reeves is an astrophysicist whose honours from the scientific community include the Albert Einstein award. But Reeves is known to the public as a wonderful popularizer of scientific ideas, possessed of an exceptional talent at combining science and humanism.
As a child growing up near Lac St-Louis in Quebec, Reeves was fascinated by nature and its relationship to the rest of the universe. This fascination led him to Cornell University, where he studied with some of the great scientific minds of the 20th century. A raconteur, Reeves tells stories about his remarkable professors, men like Hans Bethe, Philip Morrrison and Bob Wilson, whose research led to the atom bomb. Reeves also offers revealing anecdotes about Einstein, Niels Bohr, Oppenheimer and Teller.
With his usual enthusiasm, Reeves highlights milestones in astrophysics, showing us a view of the moon as seen by Galileo in 1609, and remarkable photos of galaxies colliding billions of light-years away. Along with stunning visuals, we listen as Reeves explains history and theory in a highly accessible way.
A committed ecologist, Reeves warns about the deterioration of our planet. In the face of explosive economic globalization, Reeves believes that the globalization of ecological movements offers hope. -
Like Kai ChanJane Churchill 2005 11 minIn this short film, sculptor and textile artist Kai Chan shares his artistic philosophy of economy and repetition with young artists who build extraordinary, complex 3D structures using simple materials and basic techniques. Part of the I Can Make Art ...series.
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The Impossible MapEvelyn Lambart 1947 10 minDevelopment in long-range travel and the growing importance of the Arctic and Antarctic regions make it necessary to understand how maps may be misleading. Experiments with a grapefruit illustrate the difficulty of presenting a true picture of the world on a flat surface and it is concluded that the globe is the most accurate way of representing the earth.
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The Little Men of ChromagnonFrancine Desbiens 1971 8 minIn this short animated film, little elf-like creatures emerging from 3 circles painted red, yellow and blue discover the primary colours and their combinations. When they venture into a circle of another colour they find that they, too, change colour. So, how do we make green again?
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Lift OffSylvain Charbonneau 2000 1 minA clip in the Science Please! collection, Lift Off uses archival footage, animated illustrations and amusing narration to explain what makes a rocket lift off.
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ListenDavid New 2009 6 min"A soundscape is any collection of sounds, almost like a painting is a collection of visual attractions," says composer R. Murray Schafer. "When you listen carefully to the soundscape it becomes quite miraculous." David New's portrait of the renowned composer becomes a lesson unto itself, gracing viewers (and listeners) with a singular moment of interactive subjectivity. This film was produced for the 2009 Governor General's Performing Arts Award.
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MagnetsSylvain Charbonneau 2000 1 minA clip in the Science Please! collection, Magnets uses archival footage, animated illustrations and amusing narration to explain: North Pole, South Pole... what's the big attraction?
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Pen Point PercussionNorman McLaren 1951 5 minNorman McLaren explains how he makes synthetic sound on film. With an oscilloscope he first demonstrates what familiar sounds look like on the screen; next, how sound shapes up on a film's sound track; and then what synthetic sounds sound like when drawn directly on film. This technique is also demonstrated in Dots and Loops.
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RunawayCordell Barker 2009 9 minCordell Barker, director of the Oscar®-nominated films The Cat Came Back , Strange Invaders, is back with Runaway. Set to the rousing music of Ben Charest (Triplets of Belleville), this animated short takes you on a journey that is both funny and disastrous.
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The RefrigeratorSylvain Charbonneau 2001 1 minWhat makes a fridge cool? A clip from the Science Please! collection.
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Sound Is VibrationSylvain Charbonneau 2000 1 minA clip in the Science Please! collection, Sound Is Vibration uses archival footage, animated illustrations and amusing narration to explain what is the sound.
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Slippery Ice!Claude Cloutier 1999 1 minA clip in the Science Please! collection, Slippery Ice! uses archival footage, animated illustrations and amusing narration to explain why we slip on ice.
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The State of the MatterSylvain Charbonneau 2000 1 minA clip in the Science Please collection, The State of the Matter uses archival footage, animated illustrations and amusing narration to explain how temperature affects the state of matter.
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The Tesla World LightMatthew Rankin 2017 8 minNew York, 1905. Visionary inventor Nikola Tesla makes one last appeal to J.P. Morgan, his onetime benefactor. Inspired by real events, this electrifying short is a spectacular burst of image and sound that draws as much from the tradition of avant-garde cinema as it does from animated documentary.
