Here is a selection of new and re-released streaming video titles from the National Film Board.
“Ah… the money, the money, the money”: the battle for Saltspring /directed by Mort Ransen ; produced by Gillian Darling Kovanic, Graydon McCrea ; production agency: National Film Board of Canada (Montreal). When the roar of chainsaws shatters the quiet, Ransen and other Island residents awake to an unexpected intrusion. A logging operation is underway in a central pristine valley. Within hours, a group of islanders rallies to oppose the cutting–only to discover that a logging company has purchased one of the largest expanses of undeveloped wilderness in the Southern Gulf Islands. Concerned about its potentially devastating impact on Saltspring’s ecology, economy and natural beauty, the residents set out to stop the logging. On one side–the developers, who defend their right to do what they want on private land. On the other–Saltspring residents, who blockade roads, chain themselves to logging trucks and lobby government to protect their island.
100 miles /directed by: Louis Bodart ; produced by: Maral Mohammadian, Robert McLaughlin ; production agency: National Film Board of Canada (Montreal). Are we there yet? When the kids act up in the back seat, a family road trip gets knocked hilariously off course.
A chairy tale /National Film Board of Canada. A man’s relationship with a chair becomes a symbol of exploitation in this extraordinary absurdist fantasy directed by Claude Jutra and Norman McLaren. What if the revolt by this inanimate object led to a more egalitarian order of things?
Baek-il /directed by: Grace An ; produced by: Maral Mohammadian, Robert McLaughlin ; production agency: National Film Board of Canada (Montreal). The Korean legend of Ungnyeo, a bear reborn as a woman, becomes a percussive and mesmerizing riff on the themes of transformation and quarantine.
Beyond paper /directed by: Oana Suteu Khintirian ; produced by: Nathalie Cloutier, Nathalie Cloutier, Colette Loumède ; production agency: National Film Board of Canada (Montreal). Khintirian is a member of a double diaspora, both Armenian and Romanian. In a personal quest with universal resonance, she embarks on a journey to understand how to preserve her cultural history and share it with her son at this critical moment in the history of the written word. This poetic and inspiring film essay introduces us to various “guides” from around the world while freely navigating the continuum between the physical and virtual worlds. From the Sahara to the shelves of a bookstore in Buenos Aires, and from the delicate grain of centuries-old manuscripts to the blinking servers of new digital libraries, Beyond Paper blends reflection and emotion, reminding us that human knowledge is above all an affair of the soul and the spirit.
Bill Reid remembers /directed by: Alanis Obomsawin ; produced by: Annette Clarke ; production agency: National Film Board of Canada (Montreal). Bill Reid Remembers is a beautiful tribute from Obomsawin to her friend’s remarkable life and rich legacy. Reid’s powerful narration in the film–interspersed with Obomsawin’s own–recounts his complex childhood, his emergence as an accomplished artist, and his profound connection to his homeland.
Canada vignettes: Bill Miner /produced by Peter Jones, Robert Verrall ; production agency: National Film Board of Canada (Montreal). Bill Miner was a train robber in British Columbia at the turn of the century. This animated film depicts a disastrous episode in his career.
Canadians advance near Cambrai. n1 /production agencies: Canadian War Records Office (London), Ministry of Information (London).A supply company transporting provisions and soldiers advances amid the ruins then along a country road. It then crosses the main square in a French town while a company on bikes goes by at a good clip. Soldiers move equipment in flooded trenches. On the battlefield, trains on a narrow-gauge track carry munitions, prisoners and casualties.
Canadians advance near Cambrai.n2 /production agencies: Ministry of Information (London), Canadian War Records Office (London). Cavalry detachments come and go at a staging post, while in the background, men feed the horses. Various types of armoured vehicles travel along a country road. They are carrying provisions, soldiers and a heavy piece of metal. The armoured vehicles are also engaged in combat. From inside a bunker, a soldier fires on a tank with a machine gun.
Crystal Pite: wordless language /directed by: Joella Cabalu ; produced by: Nicholas Klassen, Robert McLaughlin ; production agency: National Film Board of Canada (Montreal). Through a duet of poetry and self-reflection, choreographer Crystal Pite finds language to describe the wordless artform of dance. Glimpses into a rehearsal for her acclaimed work Revisor combined with images of natural and industrial forms, mirror the states of tension and connection within the human body.
Dugout canoe /directed by Steven Davies ; produced by Steven Davies ; production agency: Seawolf Productions Inc. After working as a clearcut logger in what is now known as the Clayoquot Sound, master carver Joe Martin reconciles his past by revitalizing the ancestral knowledge and artistic practice of the traditional Tla-o-qui-aht dugout canoe.
Eye witness no. 53 /directed by: Grant McLean ; produced by: David Bairstow, Nicholas Balla ; production agency: National Film Board of Canada (Ottawa). Every year thousands of immigrants enter Canada. But what of their homelands and the ties they leave behind? This film visits Holland to tell that human story–the story of the Boelhauers, farm folk who choose emigration as the best means of one day owning their own land. Arriving in Canada, they are given hope by what they see around them. At the same time, Canada has acquired a fine family of the land.
Fanfares /directed by: Barbara Willis-Sweete, Christopher Reilly ; produced by: Barbara Willis-Sweete, John Taylor, Michael Allder, Peter Katadotis, Niv Fichman, Larry Weinstein The documentary film, explores the creative process six composers go through as they co-write a musical composition which is to be performed in a shopping mall.
First journey, Fort William /directed by: Joan Henson ; produced by: William Brind, Barrie Howells ; production agency: National Film Board of Canada (Montreal). Set in 1815, this is the dramatic story of a child of the fur trade, son of a Native mother and a Scottish-Canadian fur trader. To mark his entry into adulthood, twelve-year-old John is travelling for the first time to Fort William, the Company’s winter headquarters by Lake Superior. The film reveals the complex network of people–Scottish, French and Native Canadian–that made up fur-trading society and gave a unique flavor to the opening up of Canada’s northwest. Meticulously recreated from historical records and shot on location at the restored Fort William.
How death came to earth /directed by: Ishu Patel ; production agency: National Film Board of Canada (Montreal). A legend from India, interpreted by a filmmaker from that country. It is a story of gods and men, of suns and moons and Earth, interpreted with an animation style and a richness of colour and design as arresting to the eye as the story and the music are to the ear.
In search of innocence /directed by: Léonard Forest ; produced by: Jacques Bobet ; production agency: National Film Board of Canada (Montreal). A questioning filmmaker from Québec finds out how Vancouver’s poets and painters look at life and art. Among the people seen are sculptor Donald Jarvis, painters Jack Shadbolt, Joy Long and Margaret Peterson, and printmaker Sing Lim.
Is my story hurting you? /directed by David Homel ; produced by Colette Loumède, Monique Simard ; production agencies: National Film Board of Canada (Montreal) This documentary journeys across the ravaged landscape of the Balkans after the forgotten wars of the nineties that destroyed Yugoslavia. Vladimir Jovic is a Bosnian Serb psychiatrist who saw the break-up of his country and the end of Slobodan Milosevic’s dictatorship. Today he treats his many compatriots who have been traumatized by their country’s past. This story of an exemplary man delves into the aftermath of a barbarity that has marked people for life.
Legends sxwexwxiy’am: the story of Siwash Rock /directed by Annie Fraziér Henry ; produced by Michael Chechik, Annie Fraziér Henry, George Johnson, Michael Chechik, Annie Fraziér Henry et al. sxwexwxwiy’am: The Story of Siwash Rock is a contemporary dramatization of an ancient Coast Salish myth about the Vancouver landmark that symbolizes the most sacred of a man’s vows, cleanliness of fatherhood. As Chief Simon Baker narrates in Squamish, the tale unfolds in Vancouver’s inner city. We meet Andrew, a young Native man struggling to overcome the disillusionment of his people. Unemployed and faced with the unplanned and difficult pregnancy of his girlfriend Kelsey, Andrew must prove himself worthy of fatherhood by following the traditional path of his ancestors. Legends is a gripping and life-affirming drama, featuring powerful performances by the film’s young actors.
Loyalties /directed by Lesley Ann Patten ; produced by Lesley Ann Patten, Kent Martin ; production agencies: National Film Board of Canada (Montreal), ZIJI Film & Television Productions Ltd. (Halifax). This documentary is the story of two women: that of slave owner and slave. Ruth Whitehead met Carmelita Robertson in 1995 when the younger woman came to do research at the Museum of Natural History in Halifax. Carmelita mentioned that her relatives had come to Nova Scotia as Black Loyalists in the late 1700s. As she recited the names of her ancestors, Ruth shuddered. She had come from South Carolina too. Ruth and Carmelita embark on a journey to Charleston in search of their connection, an undertaking that takes them to a modern South. Beneath the dense foliage of the plantations, in the sweltering heat of white patronage and black forbearance, the two women come to terms with the thunderous cruelty of the past.
Mon oncle Antoine /directed by Claude Jutra ; produced by Marc Beaudet ; production agencies: National Film Board of Canada (Montreal), National Film Board of Canada (Montreal). This film recalls a general store in a village in the asbestos mining area of Quebec in the early 1940s. The film presents a vignettes of village life–all the bitter-sweet nostalgia with which a man might remember the events that thrust him into manhood. The action takes place on Christmas Eve–the one time of the year when the mine closed its doors, and the store bustled with humanity. In the midst of it all was Uncle Antoine, and always somewhere in the background, his nephew Jacques taking it all in. Mon oncle Antoine is about a Quebec that makes no headlines but reflects the whole of life, the ebb and flow of hope and despair that might be in anyone’s memory.
My mother’s village /directed by: John Paskievich ; produced by: Joe MacDonald, Graydon McCrea ; production agency: National Film Board of Canada (Montreal). Almost fifty years after his family fled Ukraine for freedom in Canada, the filmmaker visits his parents’ homeland. Drawing on his years growing up in Winnipeg, Paskievich explores how children of refugees and immigrants are caught between two worlds. While they struggle to put down roots in a new country, they must also preserve traditions of a distant land they have never known. Paskievich’s journey through Ukraine is interwoven with stories of displacement from other prominent Ukrainian Canadians.
NFB Pause: making art in a pandemic /directed by Simon Rouillard ; production agency: La Guérilla (Montreal). After one year of living under COVID-19, four creators from the NFB’s The Curve project share how their daily lives (and creative process) have been turned upside down by this unprecedented crisis.
RUMBLE: the indians who rocked the world /directed by: Catherine Bainbridge ; produced by: Christina Fon, Catherine Bainbridge, Linda Ludwick, Lisa M. Roth ; production agency: Rezolution Pictures Inc. (Montreal). RUMBLE: The Indians Who Rocked the World tells the story of a profound, essential, and, until now, missing chapter in the history of American music: the Indigenous influence. Featuring music icons like Charley Patton, Mildred Bailey, Link Wray, Jimi Hendrix, Jesse Ed Davis, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Robbie Robertson, Randy Castillo, RUMBLE will show how these talented Native musicians helped shape the soundtracks of our lives.
Star Wars kid: the rise of the digital shadows /directed by: Mathieu Fournier ; produced by: Annie Bourdeau, Pierre-Mathieu Fortin, Nathalie Cloutier, Raphaëlle Huysmans, Philippe Lamarre et al. Ghyslain Raza was 15 years old in 2003, when his two minutes of fame would make him “patient zero” of web virality. He’d filmed himself in a fixed-shot video. Overnight, it was made public by other students and downloaded millions of times — long before social media came onto the scene. Unwittingly, Raza became the “Star Wars Kid.” Over the next two decades, Ghyslain built — or, rather, rebuilt — his life away from the camera. Today, he is a man with a keen emotional intelligence, and a doctoral student in law. This intimate documentary tells the story of the first viral phenomenon of the digital age. In the film, Raza breaks his silence, reflecting publicly for the first time on his story in conversation with other participants. Through his story, we explore our own shared experience, living in an online world hungry for content.
The Great Blue Heron /directed by: Jean-Louis Frund ; produced by: Jacques Bobet ; production agency: National Film Board of Canada (Montreal). This film documents the yearly cycle of the great blue heron, its migration from Central America and the West Indies to the St. Lawrence River and the breeding and rearing of its young. Outstanding footage shot by the filmmaker perched high in a tree affords close-ups of the birds’ intricate courtship rituals. A sensitive, beautifully photographed nature film with much to tell us of ecology and wildlife.
The great chess movie /directed by Gilles Carle, Camille Coudari ; produced by Hélène Verrier ; production agency: National Film Board of Canada (Montreal). The international chess match is cast as a classic Western shoot-out. Three chess greats dominate the film: Russia’s Anatoly Karpov; Viktor Korchnoi, a Russian defector; and American Bobby Fischer. Chess aficionados Camille Coudari and Fernando Arrabal analyze the personalities and strategies of the players and comment on the interplay of politics and chess.
The Old Believers /directed by John Paskievich ; produced by Joe MacDonald, John Paskievich, Ches Yetman ; production agency: National Film Board of Canada (Montreal). This extraordinary film introduces us to the Reutov family, part of an isolated northern Alberta community called the Old Believers. Adhering to the original Orthodox Christian dogma and rituals, the Old Believers see themselves as the last Christians left on the face of the Earth. Here in North America, for the first time in their history, they are threatened not by persecution, but by economic bounty and the western notion of personal freedom. Shot over the four seasons, the film is both a beautiful rendering of timeless rituals and a fascinating exploration of the Old Believers’ turbulent history.
The pacifist who went to war /National Film Board of Canada ; directed by David Neufeld ; narration written by K. George Goodwin, David Neufeld ; producer, Joe MacDonald. For nearly 400 years, pacifism has been a central Mennonite belief. But World War II forced many young Mennonite men into a struggle of conscience between a centuries-old religious tradition and duty to country. Some still wrestle with their decisions. This program explores the lingering resonance of those decisions through the reflections of Ted Friesen, who became a conscientious objector, and his brother John, who joined the Canadian Air Force. Along with a brief history of the Mennonites, the film highlights the courage and conviction of both sides, featuring interviews with Mennonite author Rudy Wiebe, conscientious objectors, war veterans, and a new generation of Canadian Mennonites.
The petticoat expeditions. Part one, Anna Jameson /National Film Board of Canada. Anna Jameson, kept an account of her solitary journeys throughout Upper Canada during the 1830s, when it was unheard of for a woman to travel alone. Part 1 of a series paints an inspiring portrait of one of three women who would not be constrained by convention, and ties their travels to key historical changes taking place in their times and looks at the life of author Anna Jameson and her two-month expedition through the Canadian wilderness.
The secret order /directed by Phil Comeau ; produced by Christine Aubé, Denis McCready, Nathalie Cloutier ; production agency: National Film Board of Canada (Montreal). Founded in 1926 to defend the interests of French Canadians, the Ordre de Jacques-Cartier had more than 72,000 members. Over nearly 40 years, this secret society infiltrated the machinery of the state and the private sector, as well as associations and media. Having learned that his father was a commander in the Order, Phil Comeau launches a fascinating investigation into the group, raising the curtain on the men who belonged to the Order and the causes for which they fought. In The Secret Order, former members of the organization step out of the shadows for the first time, witnesses tell their stories and experts offer context and explanation. By retracing his own father’s secret journey, Comeau shines a spotlight on the Order and paints a gripping portrait of the social and political struggles faced by Canadian francophone-minority communities during the 20th century.
The spirit of Tibet: journey to enlightenment : the life and world of Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche /National Film Board of Canada. The Spirit of Tibet is an intimate glimpse into the life and world of one of Tibet’s most revered 20th century teachers: Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche (1910-1991). This portrait tells Khyentse Rinpoche’s story from birth to death to rebirth. His life leads us on a journey revealing the wonders of Tibet’s art, ritual, philosophy and sacred dance. Along with rarely photographed areas of Tibet, Bhutan and Nepal, this film features interviews with the Dalai Lama, who speaks candidly about his own spiritual life.
To kill a tiger /directed by Nisha Pahuja ; produced by Cornelia Principe, Nisha Pahuja, David Oppenheim, Andy Cohen, Anita Lee, Andrew Dragoumis, Atul Gawande, Nisha Pahuja, et al. In a small Indian village, Ranjit wakes up to find that his 13-year-old daughter has not returned from a family wedding. After being dragged into the woods, she was raped by three men. Ranjit goes to the police, and the men are arrested. But Ranjit’s relief is short-lived, as the villagers and their leaders launch a sustained campaign to force the family to drop the charges. To Kill a Tiger follows Ranjit’s uphill battle to find justice for his child. We witness a father whose love for his daughter forces a social reckoning that will reverberate for years to come.
Undertaker for life! /directed by Georges Hannan ; produced by Christine Aubé, Denis McCready, Nathalie Cloutier ; production agency: National Film Board of Canada (Montreal). Hannan tackles a taboo subject and lifts the veil on an under-appreciated world: that of the artisans of bereavement. By providing behind-the-scenes access to the funeral industry, he demystifies a profession we tend to view as grim. Subtle, moving and often hilarious, Undertaker for Life! shows the flip side of death. Against the backdrop of Hannan’s superb photography and a musical score that’s as unpredictable as it is effective, these benevolent transporters, the undertakers, deliver a truth that transcends time: death, if it cannot be explained, at least allows us to understand life.
Waiting for Raif /directed by Luc Côté, Patricio Henríquez ; produced by Luc Côté, Patricio Henríquez, Colette Loumède, Colette Loumède, Nathalie Cloutier, Luc Côté, Patricio Henríquez. Filmed over a period of eight years, Waiting for Raif tells the tragic tale of a family torn apart by the Saudi monarchy’s intransigence, as it follows Ensaf Haidar’s inspiring battle to free her husband, prisoner of conscience Raif Badawi.
Writing the land /National Film Board of Canada. Writing the Land meticulously combines film language with Hunkamenum words to recreate Musqueam elder Larry Grant’s experience of rediscovering his language and cultural traditions. Fluid roaming camera movement captures the ever-changing nature of a modern city – the glass and steel towers cut against the sky, grass, trees and a birds in flight. In this mutable, multifaceted environment, the enduring power of language to shape perception and create memory is etched onto the wind and water.
Ever deadly /directed by Chelsea McMullan, Tanya Tagaq ; produced by Lea Marin, Anita Lee, Anita Lee, Kate Vollum ; production agency: National Film Board of Canada (Montreal). Ever Deadly is an immersive, visceral music and cinema experience featuring Tanya Tagaq, avant-garde Inuit throat singer. This documentary explores Tagaq’s transformation of sound with an eye to colonial fallout, freedom and Canadian history. We witness Tagaq’s intimate relationship with the Nuna–the Land–a living, breathing organism present in all forms of her improvised performances. Ever Deadly weaves concert footage with stunning sequences filmed on location in Nunavut, seamlessly bridging landscapes, stories and songs with pain, anger and triumph–all through the expressions of one of the most innovative musical performers of our time.
Giiwe: this is home /directed by: Merle Robillard, Andrew Lau ; production agency: Merle Robillard Pictures. Brent Mitchellwas removed from his Ojibwe home near Sagkeeng First Nations, Manitoba when he was just a year old and moved to New Zealand with his foster parents when he was five where he endured emotional, physical and sexual abuse. In the summer of 2017, we meet Brent and his wife, Yolanda who traveled from New Zealand to Winnipeg, Manitoba where the film-makers witnessed the connections grow between Brent, his sister, Penny and brother, Ron as well as with their identity and culture.
Inconvenient indian /directed by: Michelle Latimer ; produced by: Stuart Henderson, Justine Pimlott, Jesse Wente, Gordon Henderson, Anita Lee, Randy Lennox, Rita Kotzia et al. Inconvenient Indian dives deep into the brilliant mind of Thomas King, Indigenous intellectual, master storyteller, and author of The Inconvenient Indian, to shatter the misconception that history is anything more than stories we tell about the past. King takes us on a critical journey through the colonial narratives of North America. He eloquently exposes the falsehoods of white supremacy and deftly punctures myths of Indigenous erasure to lay bare what has been extracted from the land, culture, and peoples of Turtle Island.
The flying sailor /directed by Amanda Forbis, Wendy Tilby ; produced by David Christensen, David Christensen ; production agency: National Film Board of Canada (Montreal). In 1917, two ships collided in the Halifax Harbour, causing the largest accidental explosion in history. Among the tragic stories of the disaster is the remarkable account of a sailor who, blown skyward from the docks, flew a distance of two kilometres before landing uphill, naked and unharmed. Academy award nominee, The Flying Sailor is a contemplation of his journey. Drawing on reports of traumatic shock and near-death experiences, animators Tilby and a Forbis consider the kind of cataclysmic moment that pulls us from our path, strips us bare and utterly shifts our perspective. Employing a wealth of techniques (3D, 2D, live action, and photographs), along with a bold mix of comedy, suspense, philosophy and playful abstraction, The Flying Sailor is an exhilarating meditation on a few seconds of a life, and a celebration of the wonder and fragility of being.
The writing process /directed by Tim Rayne ; produced by Arthur Thomson ; production agency: Raynemaker Productions (Fredericton). Singer-songwriters share their creative process on how they refine their craft. Electronic musicians provide insight on how they create music in makeshift home studios. And young hip hop artists share the art of the sample and the inspiration behind writing lyrical bars. One band discusses the importance of collaboration in the writing process.
Tomson Highway: kipimâtisinaw tapâhpeyahk /directed by: Barry Bilinsky ; produced by: Chehala Rose Leonard, David Christensen ; production agency: National Film Board of Canada (Montreal). An intimate glimpse into the life of Cree author, musician, playwright, and storyteller Tomson Highway, recipient of the Governor General’s Performing Arts Award for Lifetime Artistic Achievement. Through his warmth and Cree humour Tomson invites us into his home in Gatineau, Quebec, where he shares stories about his parents, reasons for living, and the power of music as a language in and of itself.
White noise /directed by: Simon Beaulieu ; produced by: Nathalie Cloutier, Colette Loumède ; production agency: National Film Board of Canada (Montreal). A reflection on the fate of humanity in the Anthropocene epoch, White Noise is a roller-coaster of a film, a whirlwind of sounds and images. It transforms the imminent collapse of our civilization in the era of climate change and eco-anxiety into a visceral aesthetic experience.
You must be logged in to post a comment.