Skip to content
Accessibility
Community Life (18)
-
The Coldspring ProjectPierre Letarte & Kenneth McCready 1974 27 minThe human side of town planning, as exemplified in Baltimore, Maryland. The Coldspring Project concerned a proposed housing development for lower and upper income levels on a three hundred-acre site adjoining a wildlife sanctuary. The film records the differences aired in meetings of various interest groups that tried to modify the plan according to their views, and the compromise reached, based on plans drawn up by Montréal architect Moishe Safdie. -
A Crack in the Pavement: Growing DreamsJane Churchill & Gwynne Basen 2000 19 minThis short documentary shows initiatives kids take to transform bare pavement into dream schoolyards. Some grow trees for shade, and vegetables for a food bank. Others build a greenhouse or a rooftop garden, while others yet construct a courtyard pond as an outdoor classroom and refuge for wildlife.
A Crack in the Pavement is a two-part video set that shows children, teachers and parents how they can work together to 'green' their school grounds and make positive changes in their communities. -
City Under PressureTheodore Conant 1965 17 minA case study of municipal government and the influence of citizens acting as a group. The case study is that of Edmonton, but the problems shown are those of many cities: urban renewal, traffic congestion, zoning, etc.
-
A Crack in the Pavement: Digging InJane Churchill & Gwynne Basen 2000 18 minThis short documentary follows students from Toronto's Jesse Ketchum School as they take steps towards the greening of their schoolyard. Along the way they get how-to advice and inspiration from kids across the country; from Pauline Public School, where students raised $10,000, to Broadacres School, where a family of wild ducks found a home in their pond.
A Crack in the Pavement is a two-part video set that shows children, teachers and parents how they can work together to 'green' their school grounds and make positive changes in their communities -
The Downtown ProjectIsabelle Longtin 2011 52 minJust a stone’s throw from downtown Montreal is the largest social housing complex in Quebec. Built in 1959 where the red-light district used to be, Les Habitations Jeanne-Mance have retained something of the area’s seedy reputation for poverty, prostitution, drugs and violence. But who really knows the projects and the people who live there? Delving beneath the prejudices and stereotypes, director Isabelle Longtin ventured inside the buildings and met the residents. The result is The Downtown Project, a documentary that reveals a complex multi-ethnic reality made up of compelling personal stories and social movements.
-
Flemingdon Park: The Global VillageAndrew Faiz 2002 47 minThis documentary examines the history and current reality of Toronto’s Flemingdon Park. Now a subsidized housing project, it was built in 1961 as a trendy urban utopia. A decade later it was sold, and Flemingdon became home to refugees and new immigrants. Once a model of urban planning, Flemingdon Park's flip side is a history of violence and racism that residents have fought to overcome. Yet despite challenges, the community succeeds in making people from around the world feel at home in a different kind of utopia–one where differences are celebrated and new visions are possible.
-
Flowers on a One-way StreetRobin Spry 1968 57 minYorkville Avenue, Toronto, received newspaper prominence after it became what the papers called a "hippie haven." This film records what happened after the young people staged demonstrations to have the street closed to traffic, and civic authorities used corresponding persuasions to keep it open as a necessary traffic artery. The main confrontation takes place at a council meeting in City Hall, to which spokesmen for the young people have come to present their case. Here the film provides opportunity to judge both their attitudes and those of the city administration.
-
Holding Our GroundAnne Henderson 1988 50 minFilmed in a squatter community of Labangon in Cebu, Philippines, Holding Our Ground is the inspiring story of a group of women who have organized collectively to pressure their government for land reform, to establish their own money-lending system and to create shelters for street kids. A story of grassroots organizing that can be a model in both hemispheres.
-
The India TripBill Davies 1971 49 minThis documentary is a portrait of modern-day Pondicherry, an ancient city near the southern tip of India. For several centuries an outpost of France, the city is now home to Auroville, a spiritual community growing on its periphery. There, European and North American devotees of Sri Aurobindo, a Bengali poet and mystic, come to live the contemplative life. Their guru is a 94-year-old woman from France. This mecca of sorts is seen through the eyes of Albert Jordan, a professor from Concordia University, in Montreal, who spent a year there with his family in 1971.
-
Invisible CityHubert Davis 2009 1 h 15 minInvisible City is a moving story of two boys from Regent Park crossing into adulthood – their mothers and mentors rooting for them to succeed; their environment and social pressures tempting them to make poor choices. Turning his camera on the often ignored inner city, Academy-award nominated director Hubert Davis sensitively depicts the disconnection of urban poverty and race from the mainstream.
-
Living TogetherHalima Elkhatabi 2024 1 h 15 minIn a series of captivating encounters, several young people try to find the ideal roommate, that rare gem with whom they can share their space—and their values. A complex and engaging picture of a generation accustomed to playing all their identity cards, Living Together maps a mosaic of cultures and ideas, with explorations of community, individualism and the right to housing in constant interplay.
-
New York - Twin Parks Project - TV Channel 13Michel Régnier 1974 56 minThis feature-length documentary examines the reality of New York City in the 1970s, a place that had become a symbol of urban disaster. The 2 projects profiled attempt to tackle the problem of America’s biggest city: in a dilapidated part of the Bronx, a co-operative citizens’ movement tries to rejuvenate urban life; and WNET-TV uses its programming as an open forum for the public debate on urban issues.
-
Promises, Promises ...Reevan Dolgoy 1973 29 minThis short film explores the problems and potentials of small towns in the Drumheller Valley region of Alberta. Citizen participation in the growth and improvement of the region is encouraged through the Task Force on Urbanization and the Future. However, the Task Force initiative is eventually curtailed, as unemployment and uncertainty enter the picture. The film provides an interesting portrait of a region in socio-economic flux.
-
Persistent and FinaglingMichael Rubbo 1971 56 minThe growing resolve of a group of Montréal women, members of STOP (Society To Overcome Pollution), to do something about air pollution by factories in their city led to a campaign to focus public attention on the problem. Despite rebuffs of every kind, they persisted until they were able to bring newspapers, radio and television to bear on their fight. What they accomplished, and how they went about it, will interest urban audiences.
-
Some People Have to SufferChristopher Pinney 1976 42 minThis film documents a community's struggle to survive in the face of government indifference and the political and financial clout of industrial developers. In 1953 the residents of Bridgeview, British Columbia, were promised sewers; following years of debate, frustration, meetings and verbiage, construction started in 1977. The film interviews some of the residents, who state their opinions frankly both to the camera and at meetings. When the film was shown at the Habitat conference in Vancouver, 1976, press coverage noted: "The Third World is merely twenty miles from the site of Habitat."
-
Urban ElderRobert S. Adams 1997 28 minIn the last forty years, Canada has seen a major population shift of Indigenous peoples to the urban centres like Toronto which has become home to the largest urban Indigenous population in the country (an estimated 65,000).
Today's urban Indigenous peoples (both those with a direct connection to land-based reservation life, and those who have always lived in cities) are developing an urban Indigenous culture. They are discovering ways to integrate important expressions of traditional culture into city life, including the tradition of the Elder: a person of great wisdom who dispenses advice, settles disputes, and acts as a model and arbitrator of acceptable behaviour.
Meet Vern Harper, Urban Elder, who walks the "Red Road" in a fast-paced, urban landscape. The camera follows Vern as he leads a sweat lodge purification ceremony, watches his 11-year-old daughter Cody at a classical ballet rehearsal, conducts a private healing ceremony, participates in a political march of 150,000 people, and counsels Indigenous prisoners at Warkworth Federal Prison.
In his own voice, Vern Harper tells the Urban Elder story of how he reaches into the past for his people's traditions, blending those old ways into the present so that the future can be a time of personal growth and spiritual strength. -
VTR St-JacquesBonnie Sherr Klein 1969 26 minThis short film was an experiment in using video recordings and closed circuit television to stimulate social action in a poor Montreal neighbourhood. A citizen's committee filmed people's concerns and then played back the tapes for the community. Upon recognizing their common problems, people began to talk about joint solutions. It proved an important and effective method of promoting social change.
-
V.T.R. Rosedale1974 31 minUsing video recording technology, the citizens of Rosedale, once referred to as "the rear end of Alberta" by a frustrated citizen, pulled themselves together as a community. They formed a citizens' action committee, cleaned up the town, built a park, and negotiated with the government to install gas, water and sewage systems. And all this happened within five months.
