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Insects (10)
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BlackflyChristopher Hinton 1991 5 minThis animated film about the pesky blackfly is based on the song of the same title, written and sung by Canadian folk singer Wade Hemsworth, with back-up vocals by the McGarrigle sisters. It recounts Hemsworth's battles with this quintessential "critter" during a summer of surveying in Northern Ontario. -
Boat PeopleKjell Boersma & Thao Lam 2023 9 minAs a child in Vietnam, Thao’s mother often rescued ants from bowls of sugar water. Years later they would return the favour. Boat People is an animated documentary that uses a striking metaphor to trace one family’s flight across the turbulent waters of history.
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CaterpillarplastyDavid Barlow-Krelina 2018 5 minA prescient, grotesque sci-fi satire that lifts plastic surgery to another level. Set in a state-of-the-art clinic, in a world where advanced technologies have given rise to new standards of beauty and prestige, Caterpillarplasty offers its sardonic take on a social obsession with beauty that’s spiralled out of control.
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EdgeCode: UnderfootAlex Mackenzie 2006 5 minThis experimental animated short dissects the Earth's surface and soil. Filmmaker Alex Mackenzie uses a specially built film exposure device to study the insect world, with remarkable results. Living insects are rendered as photograms on the surface of film stock, pulsating and teeming with life.
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Eye Witness No 67Fernand Ménard & Robert Anderson 1954 11 minThe two stories covered in this edition of the Eye Witness series include: Apprentices Learn While Building School, about young men in Chicoutimi finding purpose in apprenticeship programs; and Serial Attack on Spruce Budworm, about the low-flying planes of New Brunswick’s Forest Protection Limited buzzing the treetops with DDT.
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Eye Witness No. 231950 11 minThe Magic Isle in Toronto Bay: A short ferryboat ride brings steaming Torontonians to Centre Island where sandy beaches and cool parks help them forget the heat as they swim and canoe. Nature Conscripted in War on Worms: The spruce budworm, which yearly destroys much valuable timber, is itself destroyed by the parasitic dipterous fly, bred for the purpose in a Belleville laboratory. Students Learn Lessons in the Sky: High school students at Buckingham, Québec, put their study of aerodynamics into practice as they pilot gliders at the local airfield.
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Four Wings and a PrayerNick de Pencier 2007 1 h 20 minFour Wings and a Prayer is a documentary about one of the world's most beautiful and mysterious creatures: the Monarch butterfly. Nowhere in nature is there a more powerful mix of scientific marvel, awesome beauty, and epic struggle for survival. What scientists are at a loss to fully explain is how the Monarch makes a seemingly impossible three thousand kilometre journey from Canada over mountains, through storms, and across large bodies of water to its small and remote over wintering grounds in the mountains of Mexico. Based on the book by Sue Halpern.
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The Last TangoMochi Lin 2024 1 minDrawn to unorthodox materials and themes, Mochi Lin works with diaphanous stockings and acetate to depict courtship in the insect world. Her musical composition provides the soundtrack for a startling pas de deux. Stop-motion haiku on the themes of coupledom, confinement and decapitation!
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Poisons, Pests and PeopleLarry Gosnell 1960 59 minProduced in 1960, this 2-part documentary examines the effects of widespread chemical insecticide on insects and on warm-blooded creatures including humans. Part 1 looks at the ravages of insects and the centuries-old struggle to control them. Part 2 shows experiments to find ways of controlling specific insects, while leaving harmless ones unaffected.
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The World at Your FeetLarry Gosnell 1953 22 minThis short, downward-gazing documentary presents the soil in a new light. Man's inevitable and invaluable associate, the soil is a veritable thriving community in miniature, populated by living things of the animal, plant and insect worlds. Using highly magnified sequences, the film shows how this complex universe maintains a harmonious balance.
