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China (20)
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BethuneDonald Brittain 1964 58 minThis feature documentary is a biography of Dr. Norman Bethune, the Canadian doctor who served with the loyalists during the Spanish Civil War and with the North Chinese Army during the Sino-Japanese War. In Spain he pioneered the world's first mobile blood-transfusion service; in China his work behind battle lines to save the wounded has made him a legendary figure. -
China 2000 BC - Unearthing the Truth Behind a Myth: The Xia DynastyWally Longul , Takayoshi Aizawa , … 2013 45 minBetween 2000 B.C. and 221 B.C., many civilizations developed in the area now known as China and each had its own distinct language, culture and gods. This series unveils remarkable new archaeological discoveries that provide clues about how exactly these civilizations merged into one Chinese culture over the course of several centuries.
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China 2000 BC - The Rise and Fall of Dynasties in Ancient ChinaWally Longul , Takayoshi Aizawa , … 2013 45 minBetween 2000 B.C. and 221 B.C., many civilizations developed in the area now known as China and each had its own distinct language, culture and gods. This series unveils remarkable new archaeological discoveries that provide clues about how exactly these civilizations merged into one Chinese culture over the course of several centuries.
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China Mission: The Chester Ronning StoryTom Radford 1980 57 minTom Radford's documentary chronicles the life of Chester Ronning, best remembered for his close and longstanding relationship with China. Over the course of his life, Ronning worked as a cowboy, ambassador, college president, missionary and a member of the Alberta legislature. But throughout all of his careers, his lifelong ambition was to explain China to the western world. His story is a rare example of the meeting of East and West in a compassionate, remarkable man.
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Dashan - Ambassador to China's Funny BoneGuy Nantel 1996 50 minThis documentary introduces us to Mark Rowswell, a Canadian comedian virtually unknown in his own country who has an enormous following in mainland China, where he is known as Dashan.
The film provides a unique look at China through the eyes of a man who has become fully at home in Chinese culture—his appearances on national television have been known to draw up to 600 million viewers. It shows Rowswell performing, talking about his art and popularity, and discussing the West’s role in the development of the new China. -
The First Emperor of ChinaTony Ianzelo & Liu Hao Xue 1989 42 minThis historical drama tells the story of Qin Shihuang, who unified China’s vast territory and declared himself emperor in 221 B.C. During his reign, he introduced sweeping reforms, built a vast network of roads and connected the Great Wall of China. From the grandiose inner sanctum of Emperor Qin's royal palace, to fierce battles with feudal kings, this film re-creates the glory and the terror of the Qin Dynasty, including footage of Qin's life-sized terra cotta army, constructed 2,200 years ago for his tomb. The First Emperor of China was shot entirely in IMAX.
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Inside Fighting China1942 22 minThis wartime newsreel from 1942 documents the efforts of China to deal with Japanese aggression.
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JiaWeiye Su 2020 10 minA young Chinese-Canadian couple is visiting family in Wuhan, epicentre of the virus, at the very moment the pandemic is declared. Interviewing his subjects in a novel socially distanced mode, director Weiye Su explores the culturally specific concept of Jia—an idea evoking family or home that acquires sharp new meaning during COVID times.
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Manufactured LandscapesJennifer Baichwal 2006 1 h 26 minFor almost three decades, internationally renowned Canadian artist Edward Burtynsky has been creating large scale photographs of landscapes transformed by industry: quarries, scrap heaps, factories, recycling yards, dams. Manufactured Landscapes follows Burtynsky to China as he travels the country capturing the evidence and effects of China's massive industrial revolution. Rarely witnessed sites such as the Three Gorges Dam (50% larger than any other dam in the world), the interior of a factory which produces 20 million irons a year, and the breathtaking scale of Shanghai's urban renewal are subjects for his lens and our motion picture camera. Shot in sumptuous super 16mm film, Manufactured Landscapes extends the narratives of Burtynsky's photographs, meditating on human impact on the planet without trying to reach simplistic judgements or reductive resolutions. In the process, the film shifts our consciousness about the world and the way we live in it.
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News of the World "A"1953 8 minIn this film the camera travels far afield to present happenings of interest around the world.
Marsh Bounty: Spain reclaims Seville marshlands for rice production.
Royal Review: Prince Charles and Princess Anne attract bystanders as they watch the Changing of the Guard.
Locust Plague: India uses every means to destroy great swarms of locusts.
Watchmakers' Show: In Stockholm the Swedish Watchmakers' Association celebrates its sixtieth anniversary.
Salt Harvest: At Barletta, Italy, the sea yields thousands of tons of salt for export. Gondola Regatta: On her ancient waterways, the city of Venice relives past glories. -
North China FactoryTony Ianzelo & Boyce Richardson 1980 56 minThis documentary from 1980 depicts a factory community in China where over 6000 workers process, spin and weave raw cotton into 90 million yards of high-quality cloth per year. Also seen are the workers' residential, social, recreational and educational facilities, all located on factory property. The film presents an engrossing study of a lifestyle that is very different from that of the Western world.
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Ping-pongMarcel Carrière 1974 13 minThe NFB filmed the table tennis competitions between teams of young Canadians and Chinese that took place in the People's Republic of China in the summer of 1973, the first time in twenty-five years that such filming was made possible. Shown are highlights of play at the China-Canada Friendship Meet, as well as some of the sightseeing taken in by the young Canadians--a visit, for example, to the Great Wall of China. Film without words.
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Red Star AlleyJenny Yujia Shi 2024 2 minA vine takes root in old Beijing, witnessing the passage of time in a traditional hutong—part of an urban fabric that’s fast disappearing as the city undergoes radical transformation. Making ingenious use of backlit cut-outs, Jenny Yujia Shi crafts an animated elegy to a vanishing way of life.
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Sunrise Over Tiananmen SquareShui-Bo Wang 1998 29 minShui-Bo Wang's feature documentary is a visual autobiography of an artist who grew up in China during the historic upheavals of the ‘60s, '70s and '80s. A rich collage of original artwork and family and archival photos presents a personal perspective on the turbulent Cultural Revolution and the years that followed. For Shui-Bo Wang and others of his generation, Tiananmen Square was the central symbol of the new China – a society to be based on equality and cooperation. This animated documentary artfully traces Shui-Bo's roots and his own life journey as he struggles to sort through ideology and arrive at truth.
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Thunderbirds in ChinaLes Rose 1974 57 minIn this documentary, the members of the University of British Columbia's Thunderbirds hockey team travel to China to demonstrate their skills to the new teams in the East. While hockey there still has a long way to go, this film leaves no doubt that the Chinese players are up to the challenge. A film propelled by discoveries, it goes a long way to providing insight into the differences between East and West.
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The Third HeavenGeorges Payrastre 1998 48 minThis documentary gives us a glimpse inside the influential but little-known community of Vancouver’s Hong Kong Chinese. Prejudices fall by the wayside as we discover the community's way of life and the vital role it plays in the Canadian and world economy through a moving, intimate portrait of the Lam family, who arrived here in 1991.
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They Think I'm Chinese!Nicole Giguère 2011 52 minThousands of girls who were in the first wave of Chinese children to be adopted in Québec in the 1990s have reached adolescence. The filmmaker focused her lens on five of them and accompanied them throughout their emotionally charged transition to adulthood. In their quest for identity, how do these young Quebecers experience their difference? An intimate and touching journey into the world of Alice, Lea, Julia, Anne and Flavie.
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Uyghurs: Prisoners of the AbsurdPatricio Henríquez 2014 1 h 38 minThis feature documentary recounts the incredible odyssey of 22 men from China’s persecuted Uyghur minority who were detained in Guantánamo as terrorists. These Turkic-speaking Muslims, persecuted by the authorities in Beijing, escaped to the Middle East where they were captured and sold as terrorists to the American forces. From northern China to Guantánamo, Cuba, this new documentary by Patricio Henríquez charts the incredible odyssey of three of these “prisoners of the absurd,” linked to worldwide terror networks through no fault of their own.
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Up the YangtzeYung Chang 2007 1 h 33 minThis award-winning documentary follows the Shiu family as their home is destroyed by the rising waters of China’s Yangtze River - a consequence of the Three Gorges Project, the largest hydroelectric dam in history.
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The World's Largest StudioCharlie Moretti & Matt Clarke 2007 52 minLarger than Universal's and Paramount's combined, Hengdian World Studios features 12 motion picture shooting sites spanning different periods of Chinese history. Since 1996, the company has invested over 240 million U.S. dollars in construction, which includes a replica of the Forbidden City built to scale: 100 acres, the equivalent of Warner Brothers' own Hollywood back-lot! Some 50 films and TV dramas are produced here every year, including international hits such as Hero. Hengdian boasts an amusment park, a vast filmmaking complex and a school for actors. It has become a hugely popular tourist site, making it a complex environment with a host of contrasting personalities each with their own agenda.
