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

Portraits (7)

  • Catskinner Keen
    Catskinner Keen
    Donald Brittain 1973 27 min
    This documentary short introduces us to Bob Keen, a Northwest legend and self-made millionaire. Bob began his career bulldozing mountain roads with a second-hand caterpillar tractor that gave him his nickname: Catskinner. Now he owns oil land, operates road, water and air transport, flies a plane, drives a chuckwagon, and is listed on the stock exchange. This film profiles a modest man who still likes sitting by a campfire with old cowpuncher pals in the Canadian Rockies.
  • Double or Nothing: The Rise and Fall of Robert Campeau
    Double or Nothing: The Rise and Fall of Robert Campeau
    Paul Cowan 1992 1 h 32 min
    This powerful docudrama follows the spectacular life of renegade Canadian business magnate Robert Campeau, whose ill-fated purchase of the Allied and Federated retail empires resulted in a multibillion-dollar debacle and helped bring down the curtain on one of the craziest periods in U.S. financial history. Marcel Sabourin stars as Robert Campeau.
  • The Devil You Know: Inside the Mind of Todd McFarlane
    The Devil You Know: Inside the Mind of Todd McFarlane
    Kenton Vaughan 2000 1 h 16 min
    This feature documentary is a profile of one of the most fascinating and innovative men in popular entertainment today: Todd McFarlane. MacFarlane is a legend to legions of fans. His fictional superhero Spawn has made him the most successful comic book artist in history. He is driven, controversial, relentless in the pursuit of his dreams - yet lives a happy suburban life married to his childhood sweetheart, a level-headed beauty who helps him manage a multi-million dollar entertainment empire. The Devil You Know charts this enigmatic man and explores some of his most intimate thoughts.
  • Family Business
    Family Business
    Justin Guitard 2012 26 min
    This short documentary presents an episode in the life of the owner of a general store in Pointe-Verte, New Brunswick. Nicole and Fabien, helped by their children, work 109 hours a week, never stopping. While the parents, now nearing retirement, have been holding the fort for over 30 years, their kids dream of a different future. The filmmaker, who grew up in a family grocery store, follows the daily events in this place of comings and goings, where life is all hustle and bustle. With scenes that are both funny and touching, the film pays tribute to these people who have devoted themselves to their community, providing a reassuring presence at all times. In French with English subtitles.
  • Kainai
    Kainai
    Raoul Fox 1973 26 min
    This short film brings us to the Kainai (Blood) First Nations Reserve, near Cardston, Alberta, as the Bloods try out a new way of life. With unemployment a key problem, many have pinned their hopes on a job at a pre-fab factory they built. It's a hopeful new endeavour and a completely Indigenous enterprise. What remains to be seen is whether the production line and work wages will fit into the cultural pattern of Indigenous life.
  • The Third Heaven
    The Third Heaven
    Georges Payrastre 1998 48 min
    This 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.
  • Working Like Crazy
    Working Like Crazy
    We're sorry, this content is not available in your location.
    Gwynne Basen  &  Laura Sky 1999 53 min
    Working Like Crazy is a fresh look at the struggles and victories of some former mental health patients who work in businesses owned and run by other psychiatric survivors.