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United Nations and Its Agencies (7)

  • Blue Vanguard
    Blue Vanguard
    Ian MacNeill 1957 1 h 0 min
    A film made for the United Nations to chronicle its role in restoring peace in the Middle East after the Suez Crisis of October 1956.
  • Eye Witness No. 58
    Eye Witness No. 58
    Ronald Weyman  &  Grant McLean 1953 11 min
    Eye Witness was a series of short monthly newsreels produced by the NFB during the post-war period. Each installment included several short reports on issues of interest to Canadians. Episode No. 58 includes Canadian Works with U.N.’s Problem Refugees, in which Dr. Robert Westwater, an Ottawa educator, helps UNESCO deal with problems precipitated by the dislocation of Arab populations following the 1948 war in Palestine, and Tractor Train Pushes through Northern Wilderness, which shows how supplies needed to build the Ungava railway and hydro project are transported by tractor trains through snow-bound roads and rough country.
  • Eye Witness No. 2
    Eye Witness No. 2
    1948 10 min
    Canada takes her seat on the United Nations Security Council and speeches by delegates are heard. Following scenes at Lake Success are scenes of British Columbia's Pacific slope, where, through the enterprise of a family of new Canadians, once worthless stands of hemlock are turned into a resource of immense value and usefulness.
  • Eye Witness No. 47
    Eye Witness No. 47
    1952 11 min
    Their Clinic's the World: Operating from Geneva, Switzerland, the World Health Organization brings improved health and living standards to remote parts of the world. Home on the Campus: Manitoba University's coeds qualify for degrees in home economics as they learn to grapple with the problems of housekeeping and baby care. The Plane that Beats the Bush: The De Havilland Beaver, an aerial pack-horse designed to meet the needs of the bush pilot, demonstrates it versatility.
  • Getting the Most Out of a Film No. 10: Now - The Peace
    Getting the Most Out of a Film No. 10: Now - The Peace
    1945 10 min
    Produced as an introduction to the NFB film Now - The Peace, this film features discussion among members of various unions in the Vancouver area. They express hope that the newly established United Nations, with its Economic Council, will be able to reduce the threat of war and increase the security and prosperity of workers everywhere.
  • Now - The Peace
    Now - The Peace
    1945 21 min
    This short film looks at the plans made at Dumbarton Oaks in 1945 for a renewed international organization devoted to world peace - the United Nations.
  • The Peacekeepers
    The Peacekeepers
    Paul Cowan 2005 1 h 23 min
    In this documentary, Paul Cowan delivers unprecedented access to the United Nations Department of Peacekeeping, and the determined and often desperate manoeuvres to avert another Rwandan disaster, this time in the Democratic Republic of Congo (the DRC). The film cuts back and forth between the United Nations headquarters in New York and events on the ground in the DRC. We are with the peacekeepers in the 'Crisis Room' as they balance the risk of loss of life on the ground with the enormous sums of money required from uncertain donor countries. We are with UN troops as the northeast Congo erupts and the future of the DRC, if not all of central Africa, hangs in the balance. As Secretary General Kofi Annan tells the General Assembly at the conclusion of The Peacekeepers: "History is a harsh judge. The world will not forgive us if we do nothing." Whether the world's peacekeeper did enough remains to be seen.