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Nontraditional Employment (9)
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10-7 for LifeCynthia Banks 1995 56 min10–7 for Life is a funny, raw and occasionally violent chronicle of the last two weeks of Carol Banks's career as a cop in Parkdale, Toronto. Exploring the contrasts and absurdities of patrolling the streets, the film looks at everything from the now-almost-routine gang shootings to a colleague's shocking murder, while also capturing what Banks describes as "babysitting" – officers trying to help people who can't look after themselves. Filmed by Carol's sister, Cindy Banks, this film offers a rare inside look at a police force struggling to cope with an increasingly violent city, and an intimate portrait of one burnt-out cop who has to get out for her own peace of mind. -
5′2″ 80 000 LBSNathalie Trépanier 1999 51 minThis feature documentary shines a light on a group of women who are passionate about their non-traditional job – trucking. Filmed in 1999, it follows the women all across Quebec as they do their job and address the big-ticket items in life: love, family, freedom, and solitude. Filled with humour and the contagious good spirits of the women involved.
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As the Crow FliesTess Girard 2016 1 h 23 minEvery summer, the Royal Canadian Air Cadets offers its top cadets the chance to participate in an elite flight-training camp. As the Crow Flies follows a group of these young men and women as they undergo seven weeks of training to get their pilot’s license in an intense program that normally takes six to eight months.
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I Want to Be an EngineerBeverly Shaffer 1983 28 minThis film provides a lively introduction to the professional and personal lives of three female engineers--just a few of the growing number of women who are opting for "non-traditional" jobs. Their enthusiasm for and commitment to their work makes them convincing role models for high-school girls who might be considering engineering as a career possibility. As well, the film is effective in fostering positive attitudes towards women working in the traditionally male professions of science and technology. Support material available.
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LailaDiane Beaudry 1980 10 minLaila Paattinen is a working woman. Tired of low-paying jobs, she completed a five-month course in dry-wall installation. Because she had chosen a non-traditional job for women, she ran into resistance in the marketplace. She finally solved her problems by opening her own dry-wall application business. A useful film for women seeking non-traditional jobs.
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Pretend You're Wearing a BarrelJan-Marie Martell 1978 9 minAt thirty-five, Lynn Ryan took stock of her life. She had five children, no husband, no job, and the outlook for getting off welfare seemed bleak. That was when she decided to change her life. After help from employment counsellors and a course in welding, she now has a good job as an apprentice engineer in a Vancouver shipyard. This is a vivid picture of a tough-minded woman and her courageous encounter with life.
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Rosies of the NorthKelly Saxberg 1999 46 minThey raised children, baked cakes... and built world-class fighter planes. Thousands of women from Thunder Bay and the Prairies donned trousers, packed lunch pails and took up rivet guns to participate in the greatest industrial war effort in Canadian history. Like many other factories across the country from 1939 to 1945, the shop floor at Fort William's Canadian Car and Foundry was transformed from an all-male workforce to one with forty percent female workers.
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Snow WarriorKurt Spenrath & Frederick Kroetsch 2018 8 minSnow Warrior is a love letter to the splendour of winter. It captures the beauty of a northern city through the eyes of a bicycle courier named Mariah. We see her ready herself and her bike for a gruelling day’s work of racing through the snow and traffic to get her deliveries into the hands of her customers.
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Wanted! Doctor on HorsebackClaire Helman 1996 48 minWhen Dr. Mary Percy left civilized England for the wilds of northern Alberta in 1929, the clock seemed to turn back a century. Battle River Prairie had no roads, no electricity, no telegraph, no services. But blackflies were plentiful, and so was snow. Dr. Percy became the first and only doctor in Canada's last homesteading area. In winter, her eyelashes froze to her glasses. In summer, she sometimes had to be fished out of rivers when her horse lost its footing. English sidewalks were only a genteel memory. Mary Percy planned to spend only a year in Alberta--until romance, in the form of Frank Jackson, came striding through her examining room. Sixty-five years later, she is still there. Articulate, witty and outspoken at 90 years of age, the doctor is a gifted storyteller, recalling harrowing experiences as a practitioner of frontier medicine. With the nearest hospital days away, she often had to improvise--sometimes operating on her kitchen table. As a pioneer and community builder living "off the map," Dr. Mary Percy Jackson brings history to life. The film evokes the essence of the rugged times she has lived through. "People these days would call it a challenge," she says. "I thought it was hilarious."
