Newfoundland Scene

With simple ceremony on Parliament Hill, Ottawa, Newfoundlanders are welcomed as fellow-Canadians. Prime Minister St. Laurent starting off the carving of Newfoundland's coat of arms in the tenth and formerly blank shield over the entrance to the Parliament Buildings, writing in stone another chapter of Confederation. So begins this survey of Canada's tenth province, Newfoundland, its resources and how its people live. The film takes us to St. John's, Corner Brook, Bell Island, and includes a visit to Labrador where we see the giant airport at Gander.

Short doc/essay film exploring Newfoundland's relationship to film before and after confederation.

In 1938 an airfield was built at the northeastern-most end of America, the descent went slowly but incessantly through the Cold War. This is the story of how its inhabitants gradually moved away from the great world stage and had to reinvent themselves as well as their home town.

Stan Hill Jr. is a Haudenosaunee artist living in Miawpukek First Nation Reserve, Conne River, Newfoundland. In “The Bear Inside a Whale,” he and his family discuss racism, identity, religion, creation and art, along with the cultural extinction of the Beothuk of Newfoundland. Throughout the film, we follow Stan carving a bear out of a whale vertebra. And we visit The Rooms (museum) in St. John’s, Newfoundland, where Stan talks about viewing and reclaiming Indigenous artefacts.

A portrait film of Little Bay Islands, Newfoundland and Labrador's latest resettlement project.

A 1995 David Quinton film exploring the British origins of Newfoundland outport furniture design.

During this exclusive 2 hour documentary experience incredible people sharing incredible testimonials that feature beautiful vistas, religion, traditions, tragedies, fishery, farming, heritage, culture, and amazing talent

A documentary about Nain, a Labrador Inuit community located near the world's largest nickel and copper deposits. As commercial mining interests prepare to exploit the resources, local residents consider the potential environmental and cultural impact. Meanwhile longstanding Aboriginal land claims are unsettled.

If you want to find world-class artisans, the small northern Labrador community of Hopedale offers you some of the best. Created through the St. John's International Women's Film Festival's FRAMED film education series, in partnership with the Nunatsiavut government, this film focuses on three prominent local craftspeople- two carvers and one traditional sewist.

This short documentary includes three vignettes about life off the coast of Newfoundland. In Island of Birds, we visit Green Island, a sea bird sanctuary where puffins frolic. In Caplin Harvest, little silvery fish called caplin spawn by washing ashore along the waves, making an easy catch for fishermen. In Outports on the Move, off-shore houses are pried loose from their foundation and floated to the Newfoundland mainland, where schools, hospitals, stores and services are available to the community.

“Puffin Patrol” takes viewers into the world of the Atlantic puffin. Travel to remote locations where the puffin’s unique migration patterns and feeding habits are being studied. See where puffin populations are at risk and meet the biologists who study the bird’s greatest stressors. Follow the people of Witless Bay, Newfoundland as they rescue lost and confused pufflings from the roadside and see how this simple task teaches us about environment.

An instructional film profiling the dragnet fishing technique as practiced by Danish sailors.

This documentary chronicles the relocation of an entire town in Newfoundland, Canada.

For over 200 years, European history has taught us that Newfoundland's Beothuk people are extinct. Giving voice to the Indigenous people, archaeologists, genealogists, and historians from across Atlantic Canada, The Beothuk Story debunks this myth. Here, for the first time in Canadian documentary history, the Beothuk people speak for themselves. This is their story.

One man's hat is another man's treasure when it comes to the importance and significance of saving items of historic value.

'Therapy Below Zero', is a riveting new documentary filmed in Newfoundland and Labrador. Audiences are plunged into the icy depths of a revolutionary treatment that's transforming lives - cold water therapy.

This feature-length documentary paints a lively portrait of Father of Confederation and first premier of Newfoundland Joseph Roberts Smallwood, or "Joey," as he is known to most Canadians. Following one of Canada’s most colourful political figures during a two-and-a-half-month period that included a stormy Liberal leadership convention, the film reveals a man misunderstood even by his close associates.

Documentation of the legendary all ages hardcore punk show held at a Jack Astor's Sports Bar & Grill during operating business hours in St. John's, Newfoundland. Featuring performances from local hardcore heavyweights Carnage, GlitterGlue, Buck 50'd, and the debut performance of Life Jolt.

Two women discuss the roles and problems of women, education, and shopping on Fogo Island.

This short documentary looks at the government relocation of the Labrador Inuit and the effects on their culture and social structures.