Memory of Summer

A light, humorous look at the motor car and the great North American itch for a place on the road. From the comparative peace of Honest Joe's used-car lot, this film hustles you onto our public speedways, where hot rubber erases any distance between all points. Slow-motion and pop-on-pop-off photography make this a provocative, revealing study of motormania unlimited. A 1960 black and white production. (Also released under the title 1/3 Down and 24 Months to Pay.)

This short documentary features Canadian contralto Maureen Forrester as she sings at the Festival Casals, a musical event founded by the great Spanish cellist and conductor Pablo Casals and sponsored annually by the Puerto Rican government. Part concert film, part tourism film, Festival in Puerto Rico offers viewers candid glimpses of mid-20th century Puerto Rico intercut with performance footage of Forrester and her husband, violinist-conductor Eugene Kash.

This film observes, in a Montréal public school, the teaching of English to immigrant children. To thousands of children arriving in Canada from Greece, Italy, France, Germany or Japan, English is "a foreign language." Under able coaching they begin to understand and even enjoy the vagaries of the English language.

St. Joseph's Oratory, a picturesque shrine silhouetted against Mount Royal, draws pilgrims by the thousands every year. They come from California by Greyhound bus, from Vancouver by plane, and on foot from many parishes surrounding Montréal. What is the fame of this shrine, that it attracts the devout and the curious alike? The story is told by Brother Placide Vermandère of the Order of the Holy Cross, who was personally acquainted with Brother André, after whom the shrine's famous temple is named. Cameras follow a procession of the League of the Sacred Heart through the streets of the city to the famous sanctuary and show many of the religious observances conducted in the church, including Mass attended by invalids who come in the hope of being healed of various afflictions.

The misbehaving public performs for the camera in a half-hour miscellany of misdeeds. In a behind-the-scenes look at the hour-by-hour operation of a large metropolitan police force, this film presents a fair sampling of what keeps Toronto's police officers busy twenty-four hours a day.

This 1959 documentary short is a frank portrait of the daily operations inside the Montreal General Hospital’s emergency ward.

A group of young skateboarders find direction in their lives when they move to New York and start a pickle business.

Quarry workers and construction sites. Private neighborhoods. Paleontological digs. The earth unites and separates all of them, and everyone has an interpretation of how this world should be inhabited. The documentary follows their interests to build a story about the expansion of the city and its consequences.

Genie Français – Les Fortresses de Vauban

A building lost in the midst of a 5 000 hectare park, that's the equivalent of the surface of Paris, Chambord is the castle of all superlatives. Having required nearly 220,000 tonnes of stone to build, the Chateau de Chambord, in the Loir-et-Cher department, is an architectural gem. 156 metres of facade, it has more than 70 staircases, 282 fireplaces and 426 rooms. The castle commissioned by Francis 1st in the 16th century is also the most mysterious. The majestic monument has its share of mysteries: identity of its architect, influence of the Florentine painter Leonardo da Vinci in its design, location in the middle of marshes in the heart of the forest and even longevity because it has survived through time without being damaged since the beginning of its construction in September 1519.

Documentary which traces the story of Live Aid from its humble beginnings, a pop tune cobbled together in the back seat of a taxi, to the eve of the biggest televised event ever. Artists from the time tell the story of the day that music rocked the world. Organiser Bob Geldof recalls how after 12 weeks of manic preparation, the big day finally arrived.

A closely observed portrait of a single man in his 40's who lives in St. Kilda. Although he has none of the trappings of conventional existence, Kelvin's obsessive interest in born again Christianity, physical culture and recent German/Jewish history has given him a way of making sense of the world and led him to a number of people, friends through whom we see something of his life and beliefs.

Work is becoming more service oriented and more and more services rely upon us doing harm to each other. In most people's lives, work operates as a degrading and debilitating force. It disables people's critical and perception capacities. Unless workers assume responsibility for evaluating the meaning and implications of the work they do, there will never be the capacity to redirect the modern work institutions from their courses of violence and exploitation. Built in seven parts which correspond to each day of the week, this film studies the relationship between work being done and the nature of the people that are doing it.

The film details the independent electronic scene of the 80s and 90s in the industrial city of Izhevsk (USSR). Today so called "Izhevsk electronic wave" is an important underground phenomenon in the history of modern Russian music. Appearing: "СД", "Стук бамбука в XI часов", "Красивая пришла", Rodesia, "Самцы дронта", "Организация сна", "Новые испанские кролики", Velvet & Velvet Dolls, "Вторая африканская охота", Lancer, Virgo Intacta, Birdwood, Digital Meet, "Юка".

"Beti is a dancer in the Raiz di Polon company in Cape Verde. She receives an offer from Lisbon to join a Cape Verde music show and start a new career there. The offer unchains the deep-set Cape Verde conflict in her: identity built on the Diaspora century after century. Doubts, nostalgia, uprooting, they all soar over her and accompany her decision. The same dilemma that surrounds all Cape Verdeans, the yearning to leave, the yearning to return. Expressed and brought together around music, hallmark of the people of Cape Verde."

'Chinese Hip-Hop Underground' is an insider documentary following the story of Weber - one of Mainland China's first rappers. Weber's uncanny musical talents allow him to spearhead the creation of Chinese rap music - a free form of creative self-expression that spreads like wildfire amongst those struggling the most; young working class students and grassroots migrants left out of the country's meteoric rise. Even while Weber's music electrifies China's youth and gains a huge following, he is challenged by enemies posing a threat to his musical existence: state censors, on the one hand, and armies of state-backed pop stars seeking to steal the name of hip-hop for their own gain, on the other. Can Weber and underground musicians like him survive this assault? Will Underground Chinese hip-hop survive?

In 1997, Channel 4 called on cult couch-potatoes Adam and Joe to look back over its first 15 years of groundbreaking television. And take the p*ss out of it...

Manuel Cepeda Vargas: Un Artista en la Política

Documentary film for german TV about rock music in Soviet Union. Featuring: "Мистер Твистер", "Ва-Банкъ", "Чудо-Юдо", "Женская Болезнь", "Ночной Проспект", "Аквариум", "Ноль", "Аукцыон", "Телевизор", "АВИА", "Звуки Му". In 1989 an album with recorded soundtrack was released.

"The Squatters of the Devil's House" is the choral portrait of Fercho, 'El Diablo' and 'El Jipi', ephemeral owners of a no-man's-land that is - perhaps - their only corner in the world. The ruins allow them to share the fragments of their days, survive the city and time, and become a small family. By making vestiges the foundation of their lives, their own ability to be reborn is revealed.