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France (27)
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Break-through1944 11 minAllied troops land on the Normandy coast and drive eastward to the gates of Germany. Opening scenes are of the D-Day landings and establishment of Canadian forces on the beachhead. Pictures of bitter street fighting and of pin-point bombing tell the story of Caen's capture and the advance towards Falaise. Made from footage filmed by units of the Canadian Army Overseas. -
Canadians AbroadDon Haldane 1956 30 minThis short documentary from 1956 catches up with several talented Canadians who have found a home in the entertainment or arts scenes of London and Paris. Among them are Toronto-born Beverley Baxter, a baronet and MP who claims that London has a history of being invaded (first the Romans, now the Canadians), and then-aspiring novelist Mordecai Richler, who feels he has a better chance of making a living in England than he does back home.
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Canada at War, Part 4: Days of Infamy1962 27 minDecember 1941 - June 1942. The war is now global and pressures on Canada mount. Without warning Japan strikes at Pearl Harbor. Canadians adjust to food rationing, salvage drives. The British Commonwealth Air Training Plan is inaugurated in Canada. In Ottawa, Winston Churchill makes his 'some chicken, some neck' speech.
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Canada at War, Part 9: The Norman Summer1962 27 minJune - September 1944. D-Day, June 6, 1944. In early morning hours, infantry carriers, including one hundred and ten ships of the Royal Canadian Navy, cross a seething, pitching sea to the coast of France while Allied air forces pound enemy positions from the air. Cherbourg, Caen, Carpiquet, Falaise, Paris are liberated. Canadians return, this time victorious, to the beaches of Dieppe.
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An Ecology of HopeFernand Dansereau 2001 1 h 24 minA documentary portrait of ecologist Pierre Dansereau, the film takes us from Baffin Island to New York City, from the Gaspé Peninsula to Brazil. At each stop on this world tour, we hear his story and witness landscapes of breathtaking beauty.
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Eye Witness No. 78Bernard d' Aillencourt & Wilfred Doucette 1955 10 minMontrealers Take Molière to Paris: Members of Montréal's Théâtre du nouveau monde find time for sightseeing in Paris, before presenting works of the famous French playwright at the Second International Festival of Drama. Sealing - Still a Dangerous Gamble: Spring break-up takes the sealer Algerine into the north Atlantic, where intrepid Newfoundlanders hunt the valuable seal.
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Eye Witness No. 461952 11 minThese vignettes from 1952 covered various aspects of life in Canada and were shown in theatres across the country. Subjects included a floating laboratory ship from the National Research Council, a visit by a group of Canadian veterans revisiting Normandy plus events at Toronto's Maple Leaf Gardens.
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France on a PebbleClaude Fournier & Gilles Groulx 1961 29 minThe 4,000 inhabitants of the archipelago of Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon describe it as a caillou—a tiny rock on which they live, lost in the shadow of Newfoundland. There is something mysterious and inexplicable about this extension of faraway France. In broad strokes, the film paints a picture of this insular population, revealing their history, daily lives and singular character.
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The Fight for True FarmingEve Lamont 2005 1 h 29 minIn this documentary, crop and animal farmers in Quebec, the Canadian West, the US Northeast and France offer solutions to the social and environmental scourges of factory farming. Driven by the forces of globalization, rampant agribusiness is harming the environmemt and threatening the survival of farms. The proliferation of GMO crops is a further threat to biodiversity as well as to farmers' autonomy. In Europe as well as North America, a current of resistance bringing together farmers and consumers insists that it is possible - indeed imperative - to grow food differently.
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Front LinesClaude Guilmain 2008 33 minA tribute to the combatants in the First World War, this film traces the conflict through the war diary and private letters of five Canadian soldiers and a nurse. Hearing them, the listener detects between the lines an unspoken horror censored by war and propriety.
The film mingles war footage, historical photos and readings of excerpts from the diary and letters. The directorial talent of Claude Guilmain breathes life into these 90-year-old documents and accompanying archival images so that we experience the human face and heart of the conflict.
For the educational sector, five documentary vignettes have been drawn from the film: Nurses at the Front, The Officer's Role, The Life of the Soldier, Faith and Hope and The Trenches, each with further information on its particular subject. -
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. -
Here and ThereDiane Obomsawin 2006 9 minIn this animated short, filmmaker Diane Obomsawin shows how childhood can be a chaotic time, especially if you're bouncing back and forth between two continents. With engaging candour and gentle humour, Obomsawin fleshes out an uncertain identity and takes control of her life. Using drawings on paper and digitized snippets of fabric, she creates a whimsical world of simple lines and pastel tones.
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In Desperate Battle: Normandy 1944Brian McKenna 1992 1 h 43 minThis documentary looks at the events of June 6, 1944, when a combined force of American, British and Canadian troops landed on the beaches of Normandy. The Allied invasion of occupied France was a turning point in the war against Hitler's Germany. From a tactical view, Canada's role was limited; strategically, it was pivotal. Part of the 3-part series The Valour and the Horror.
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International OperationsArthur Hammond 1973 28 minThe third part of the Corporation series looks at corporate influence on society and culture. The arrival of a major Canadian supermarket's French subsidiary, Supermarchés Montréal, in a town on the outskirts of Paris has a social and cultural impact: on the shopping and eating habits of the local population; on stall-holders in the traditional local market who see their customers drift away; on employees who must adjust to an unaccustomed work environment. President Sam Steinberg's first visit to the French stores provides a first-hand glimpse of the homogenizing effect of corporate technology on culture. Other films in the series are: 1. Growth, 2. Real Estate, 4. Bilingualism, 5. The Market, 6. Motivation, 7. After Mr. Sam.
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Il faut continuer! (English Version)Michel Brault & André Gladu 1978 27 minEducator and musician Jany Rouger introduces us to accomplished folk musicians from Bas-Poitou: basket maker and fiddler Paul Micheneau, and square-dance fiddler Maximin Rambaud, who leads the figures of old-style dances, a forerunner of the modern-day caller. Rouger explains why it’s so important to continue this tradition.
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Inside FranceStuart Legg & Tom Daly 1944 21 minThis short film focuses on the period between World War I and World War II when France was struck by riots, strikes and economic stress. During the war that followed there was again internal dissension, between those supporting the Fighting French and those supporting the Vichy government. With the end of the war, however, France put itself on the road to recovery, rebuilding its strength on more solid foundations.
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J’ai chanté, j’ai déchanté et je rechante (English Version)Michel Brault & André Gladu 1980 27 minA trip to Upper Brittany, whence came the ancestors of many French-Canadians, bringing with them a wealth of songs still sung in the Gaspé region. Philippe Durand and Yann Plunier introduce us to Breton history and culture. Jeannette Maquignon and friends sing work songs, songs to dance to, and laments.
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The Lost Garden: The Life and Cinema of Alice Guy-BlachéMarquise Lepage 1995 52 minThis feature documentary is a portrait of Alice Guy-Blaché, one of cinema's most fearless pioneers. A filmmaker before the word even existed, Guy-Blaché made her first film at the end of the last century, when cinema was still brand-new. After directing, producing and writing more than 700 films, she slipped into oblivion. This film rescues her brave and shining memory.
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Letter from Overseas1943 15 minIn this short film, a letter from a soldier stationed in Britain during World War II is sent home to his parents in Canada. The content of the letter is illustrated with scenes of military life - training, assault courses and recreation along with combat scenes from the Dieppe and Bruneval raids.
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La terre d’amitié (English Version)Michel Brault & André Gladu 1978 28 min"The commune of Gençay, in Haut-Poitou, invites you to an evening of music at the Dognon.” Singer Huguette Compagnon describes the prejudices faced by speakers of the Poitevin dialect. Ethnologist Michel Valière talks about his fieldwork and explains the urgency of preserving cultural diversity in France and around the world.
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Of Sport and Men1961 58 minThis feature documentary is all about sports. Here, sport is seen as a lesson in courage and discipline, and a peculiar form of beauty. The film covers 5 great sporting events. Part 1 covers the Tour de France bicycle race, the sports car race at Sebring, Florida, and the Spanish bullring. Part 2 covers British soccer and Canadian hockey.
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Paris 1919Paul Cowan 2008 1 h 33 minThis feature-length film, based on Margaret MacMillan's acclaimed book of the same name, takes us inside the most ambitious peace talks in history. Revisiting the event with a vivid sense of narrative, the film evokes a pivotal moment when peace seemed possible, and reflects on the hard-learned lessons of history.
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Parler breton, c’était un crime ! (English Version)Michel Brault & André Gladu 1980 26 minBretons descend from the Celts, and France once banned their language and culture. An eloquent example for understanding, in reverse, the assimilation of certain French-speaking communities in the Americas. Philippe Durand refutes the mechanics of colonialism, and Emmanuel Kerjean and Lomig Denniou answer with melodies and call-and-response songs (Kan ha diskan).
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Road to the ReichTom Daly 1945 10 minThis short documentary includes highlights of the Allied advance from Normandy to Antwerp during WWII, including the bombing of Calais, the capture of V-2 launching sites, action on Walcheren Island and the arrival of Allied ships at Antwerp.
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The Universal Clock - The Resistance of Peter WatkinsGeoff Bowie 2001 1 h 16 minThis feature documentary is a portrait of Peter Watkins, an Oscar®-winning British filmmaker who, for the past 4 decades, has proved that films can be made without compromise. With the proliferation of TV channels, documentaries are enjoying an unprecedented boom fuelled by audiences seeking an alternative to infotainment. But now documentary filmmaking, too, finds itself constrained by the imperatives of television. However, there is a rebel resisting this uniformity of the spirit. Pre-eminent among today's documentary filmmakers concerned about this mind-numbing standardization, Peter Watkins has never strayed from either his principles or the cause.
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Women on the MarchDouglas Tunstell 1958 58 minThis feature film in two parts is an exploration of the women’s suffrage movement. Spearheaded by women like Emmeline Pankhurst, founder of the Women's Social and Political Union, the Suffragettes realized they would have to become radical and militant if the movement was going to be effective. There followed many demonstrations, and imprisonments until the women’s vote was finally granted, in 1918 (Britain) and 1919 (Canada, except Quebec.)
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Zero Hour1944 22 minThis short Second World War documentary from the World in Action series tells the story of the great Allied invasion of Northwest Europe in 1944. The film reviews the preparation, strategy and over-all campaign planning that went into this gigantic task.
