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Industrial Development (12)
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Democracy at WorkStanley Hawes & Fred Lasse 1944 18 minThis short documentary was made near the end of World War II to introduce the subject of the need for labour-management committees. Government and industry in Canada were looking to a post-war era where production would have to be converted to peacetime. The objective was to improve productivity by reducing absenteeism, workplace accidents and keeping morale high. -
Eye Witness No. 31948 11 minThe film takes us to a dispersal centre in Halifax for a close-up view of some new neighbours--homeless Europeans, eager to contribute their skills to a new homeland in Canada. The second part of the film tours the mushrooming community of Yellowknife, six hundred and seventy-five miles north of Edmonton. In five years, its population jumped from five hundred to five thousand, turning a mining camp into a permanent mining town.
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Eye Witness No. 11947 11 minIn this installment of the Eye Witness series from 1947, we visit Chalk River, Canada's atomic energy project, for an update. We see the production and handling of radioactive isotopes destined for medical and agricultural research. Then we visit South Africa for a report on the Canadian trade mission while surveying the industrialization that's taken place and affected the Commonwealth nation.
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Front of SteelJohn McDougall 1940 18 minThis short WWII propaganda documentary drives home the point that steel and committed steel workers can make the difference between winning and losing in modern warfare. A short sequence demonstrating the depravity of the Nazis is followed by a detailed explanation of the manufacture of Bren guns, ambulances, transport trucks and submarine chasers in Canada during World War II.
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Land for Pioneers1944 16 minBoth exploration and the fur trade opened up Canada's Northwest Territories, a land for pioneers. The magic of gold once lured thousands into the Yukon, but greater riches lie east of the Klondike, imbedded in the rocks and tundra of the Canadian Shield. The farm areas, the fisheries, the forests, and the rivers of northern British Columbia and the Prairie provinces also promise wealth. The Alaska Highway opened up potential grain fields, and air routes form a close link with the busy centers of the South, encouraging industrial development.
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Look to the NorthJames Beveridge 1944 22 minThis short film from 1944 depicts the swift development of the Canadian northwest for wartime strategy as well as post-war planning. The Alaska Highway was only one result of wartime prosperity in the northern region, and this film looks at some of the others, including air routes to Europe and Asia.
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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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Mexico Today1947 10 minThe film provides a short history of Mexico and then looks at its current situation and its expectations for future development. Trade ties between Canada and Mexico are outlined.
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The NewcomersDavid Bennett 1953 27 minAll across Canada, at every level, national life is being enriched and strengthened by the talents and skills, as diverse as the countries from which they come, which are being poured into their adopted land by immigrants from the British Isles and Europe. This film travels to many places from coast to coast to present a visual inventory of the many ways in which Canada's expansion is being helped by the newcomers, who see fresh opportunities to develop existing resources--both economically and culturally--and who also arrive as the purveyors of specialized knowledge from abroad.
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Toronto Boom TownLeslie McFarlane 1951 10 minThis short documentary studies the contrast between the sedate Toronto of the turn of the century and the thriving, expanding metropolis of 1951. Aerial views give evidence of the conversion of the old Toronto into the new--the city with towering skyscrapers, teeming traffic arteries, vast industrial developments and far-reaching residential areas housing over a million people.
Toronto's mid-century progress is also Canada's, as manifested in the building of Canada's first subway, and in the bustle of the nation's greatest trading centre--the Toronto Stock Exchange. -
Tomorrow's World1943 19 minFrom the Canada Carries On series, this documentary emphasizes the importance of conservation and rationing, and the increased industrial production, during World War II. It suggests that "tomorrow's world" will be more prosperous and better planned because of the war efforts.
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Wartime HousingGraham McInnes 1943 20 minThis short documentary looks at the rapid industrial expansion that took place during WWII and the need for more decent housing. Workers flooding into urban centres and outlying areas were accommodated with small pre-fabricated homes that could be constructed quickly and efficiently.
