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Ontario (10)
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First WinterJohn N. Smith 1981 26 minThis historical drama features the first winter spent in Canada by a family of Irish immigrants deep in the Ottawa Valley. The year is 1830. Because the father is working in a logging camp, the mother has sole charge of the family. Sickness overtakes her, and she dies. The children are left on their own to survive. The film graphically illustrates the enormous hardships endured by the first settlers who had to cope with a climate with which they were unfamiliar. A beautiful, moving film. -
Henry Settles in Upper CanadaEva Szasz 1995 10 minAfter a long, hard ocean voyage across the Atlantic, twelve-year-old Henry and his mother arrive in Upper Canada. Uncle Ned meets them and takes them to rest up. Homesick, Henry takes a turn around the village and discovers what village life is like in a well-established farming community. He soon settles in and brings some good news to his mother.
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IkweNorma Bailey 1986 57 minPart of the Daughters of the Country series, this dramatic film features a young Ojibwa girl from 1770 who marries a Scottish fur trader and leaves home for the shores of Georgian Bay. Although the union is beneficial for her tribe, it results in hardship and isolation for Ikwe. Values and customs clash until, finally, the events of a dream Ikwe once had unfold with tragic clarity.
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Jamie Really Liked to EatJocelyn Rehder 1985 6 minJamie Really Likes to Eat shows the life of a young boy living on a homestead around 1830 and how many pioneer parents depended on their children to help them gather and prepare the family's food. Jamie fishes, plucks ducks, and traps rabbits. He helps his mother churn butter, collect eggs and bake bread. Children can compare the food Jamie eats with the food they eat - some of it the same, like buckwheat pancakes and blueberry muffins, and some of it different, like rabbit stew and duck pie.
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Mission of FearFernand Dansereau 1965 1 h 19 minThe story of the Jesuit martyrs who lived with the Wendat converts in the region near what is now Midland, Ontario. The film is of wide interest since it reconstructs a period of Canadian history, especially of Indigenous life, at the very beginning of European settlement. The village and the Jesuits' buildings are exact models from archeologists' reconstructions. The story is based on the Jesuit Relations, the actual journals of mission life that still make for thrilling reading.
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The New SchoolhouseJocelyn Rehder 1995 9 minA story of village life in Ontario in the 1850s as seen through the eyes of three young children. The whole community participates in the building of the new schoolhouse and its opening day celebrations.
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The New SchoolteacherJocelyn Rehder 1995 9 minThe New Schoolteacher describes the life of Ella, a young teacher in the 1850s. Not much older than the senior students in her charge, she is responsible for everything in the school from teaching all grades, all subjects, to discipline and housekeeping. It is a difficult job but Ella proves that she can do it and starts a baseball team too.
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Robert Baldwin: A Matter of PrincipleJohn Howe 1961 31 minThis film is a reconstruction of Robert Baldwin’s involvement in the Upper Canada Rebellion of 1837. Though bound to the cause of constitutional reform by principle, Baldwin’s heart was with the rebels and in the midst of armed revolt, he withdrew to fight a lonely battle with himself.
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Speakers for the DeadDavid Sutherland & Jennifer Holness 2000 49 minThis documentary reveals some of the hidden history of Blacks in Canada. In the 1930s in rural Ontario, a farmer buried the tombstones of a Black cemetery to make way for a potato patch. In the 1980s, descendants of the original settlers, Black and White, came together to restore the cemetery, but there were hidden truths no one wanted to discuss. Deep racial wounds were opened. Scenes of the cemetery excavation, interviews with residents and re-enactments—including one of a baseball game where a broken headstone is used for home plate—add to the film's emotional intensity.
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William Lyon Mackenzie: A Friend to His CountryJulian Biggs 1961 28 minThis documentary short is a portrait of Scottish-born journalist, politician, and rebellion leader William Lyon McKenzie. The first mayor of Toronto, he was an important leader during the 1837 Upper Canada Rebellion. This film portrays his election, his later defeat, his exile, and his fight for responsible government.
