The NFB is committed to respecting your privacy

We use cookies to ensure that our site works efficiently, as well as for advertising purposes.

If you do not wish to have your information used in this way, you can modify your browser settings before continuing your visit.

Learn more
Skip to content Accessibility

Recycling and Waste Disposal (9)

  • Alain Dubreuil, Alchemist
    Alain Dubreuil, Alchemist
    Manon Barbeau 2002 26 min
    A veritable demolition artist, Alain saves what he can from the wrecking ball, salvaging disused and discarded items and magically infusing them with new life. The scrap yard is his treasure trove. Based only on his fertile imagination, eschewing any kind of preconceived plan, he creates wondrous objects and edifices. An old warehouse becomes his home. A mothballed shipyard serves as a gigantic movie set, further feeding his dreams... until his lease is up and the authorities insist the buildings must come down. But Alain is already off searching for another abandoned structure vast enough to accommodate his soaring vision.
  • Class Project: The Garbage Movie
    Class Project: The Garbage Movie
    Martin Defalco 1980 23 min
    In this short documentary, a group of pupils aged 8 to 13 embark on a school project to find out all they can about garbage and its impact on the environment. The places they visit tell us a lot about the society we live in and about ecology, cities, art and history.
  • Crapshoot: The Gamble with Our Wastes
    Crapshoot: The Gamble with Our Wastes
    We're sorry, this content is not available in your location.
    Jeff McKay 2003 52 min
    A hazardous mix of waste is flushed into the sewer every day. The billions of litres of water - combined with unknown quantities of chemicals, solvents, heavy metals, human waste and food - where does it all go? And what does it do to us? Filmed in Italy, India, Sweden, the United States and Canada, this bold documentary questions our fundamental attitudes to waste. Does our need to dispose of waste take precedence over public safety? What are the alternatives?
  • The End of Certainties
    The End of Certainties
    Jean-Daniel Lafond 2020 45 min
    More than a decade after the worldwide financial crisis of 2007–08, what does globalization mean today? Filmmaker-philosopher Jean-Daniel Lafond takes us behind the scenes of the International Economic Forum of the Americas, a massive annual gathering at which economists, financiers and politicians hold forth on the key issues of the day. Featuring first-hand testimonials by nearly two dozen influential men and women, The End of Certainties unfolds as a multi-voice meditation on the state of the world. This observational documentary offers a cogent assessment of globalization—and its ideals, disillusionment, fears and hopes—and the quest for a new humanism, characterized by greater inclusiveness and fairness.
  • Recycle Steel?
    Recycle Steel?
    Tina Keeper 1999 4 min
    In this short documentary, watch sparks fly and molten metal run white hot as it goes from scrap metal to fresh steel.
  • Recycle Paper?
    Recycle Paper?
    Winston Washington Moxam 1999 4 min
    This short film depicts what happens to all that paper we put in our recycling boxes.
  • One Man
    One Man
    Robin Spry 1977 1 h 27 min
    This feature film about corporate negligence sends reporter Jason Brady into battle against big business... and himself. Can he risk his marriage, his job and possibly his family's safety to save innocent children from the devastating effects of industrial pollution? Can one man buck the system and still survive?
  • The Pirate
    The Pirate
    Michel Murray 1991 19 min
    In this short fiction film, Estelle, the scientist in charge of a research project on water, is getting ready for a conference with the help of her "intelligent" satellite Zenon. But a teenage hacker has found an illegal way to consult Zenon's files. Things look very bad when the hacker accidentally infects Zenon with a virulent computer virus.
  • Treasure Hunters
    Treasure Hunters
    Bruno Baillargeon 2002 1 h 7 min
    They live on our waste, on what we leave behind. Once called guenillous (beggars), they’re now known as scrappeurs—or, more nobly, recycleurs. Denis is one of them, prospecting by bicycle around his neighbourhood, sifting through garbage looking for things to sell: used furniture, crippled toys, trinkets, scrap metal and a myriad other cast-off items that, for him, are the gold he survives on. He’s surrounded by a network of colleagues, customers and friends: a woman who collects old dolls; Roger, who makes bracelets; Jean-Claude, who makes a decent living by picking up scrap metal in his truck; and two youngsters, Yannick and Sébastien. As we follow Denis in his efforts to buy a truck, we enter a parallel universe of hardworking folk who consider freedom the most important wage they earn.