Upon learning of his father's terminal illness diagnosis, a young, autistic, hearing-impaired artist travels back to Taiwan with a filmmaker to make a film in his honour.
This feature documentary examines its own genre, which has often been called Canada's national art form. Released in the year of the NFB's 75th birthday, Shameless Propaganda is filmmaker Robert Lower's take on the boldest and most compelling propaganda effort in our history (1939-1945), in which founding NFB Commissioner John Grierson saw the documentary as a "hammer to shape society". All 500 of the films produced by the NFB until 1945 are distilled here for the essence of their message to Canadians. Using only these films and still photos from that era, Lower recreates the picture of Canada they gave us and looks in it for the Canada we know today. What he finds is by turns enlightening, entertaining, and unexpectedly disturbing.
On the morning of October 30, 1995, tension was palpable throughout Quebec. On this Referendum Day, 15 years after René Lévesque chanted "À la prochaine fois!", would the people of Quebec say yes or no to their independence?
Toronto is regarded as the third largest jazz centre in North America. This film features a cross-section of jazz bands of that city: the Lenny Breau Trio, the Don Thompson Quintet and the Alf Jones Quartet. Their styles show creative self-expression, hard work, and improvisation.
Through concerts and interviews, folk-progressive group Harmonium takes Quebec culture to California. This documentary full of colour and sound, filmed in California in 1978, recounts the ups and downs of the journey of the Quebec musical group Harmonium, who came to feel the pulse of Americans and see if culture, their culture, can succeed in crossing borders.
Déception durable
To mark the 100th anniversary of the Société des alcools du Québec, Francis Reddy tells the exhilarating story of alcohol in Quebec from prohibition to promotion. With the help of historian Laurent Turcot and local producers, Reddy explores the unique relationship Quebecers have with alcohol and its place in their lifestyles over the years.
A mother moose’s journey through nature’s eternal cycles.
In 2020, with the COVID-19 pandemic raging at historic proportions in the background, the Centre hospitalier de l’Université de Montréal (CHUM) decided it was its duty to posterity to document the crisis. The communications team took out the mics and cameras to capture what went on inside the hospital walls for one full year.
La bataille de Rabaska
La dérive douce d’un enfant de Petit-Goâve
Camping à l'Île
This short documentary is part of the Canada Carries On series of morale-boosting wartime propaganda films. In Home Front, the various WWII-era social contributions of women are highlighted. From medicine to industrial labour to hospitality, education and domesticity, the service these women provided to their country is lauded.
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 in Québec, 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.
“Under Pressure” examines the unique struggles of African Nova Scotian men through the perspective of Dennis Adams Jr., a bald, bearded Black man. With raw honesty, the film weaves themes of identity, mental health, and personal growth, offering an intimate look at life in modern-day New Scotland (Nova Scotia).
Traces the lives of the Hartings, a blind Montreal family of three who make their living singing in the city's subway stations. The Hartings lost their only sighted child Hassan in a tragic drowning accident, and have since turned to the teachings of Russian mystic Grigori Grabovoi, hoping to resurrect their son. Resurrecting Hassan is an exploration of this family's legacy of grief, tragedy and abuse; the film will follow them on their path to redemption.
The story of a young boy forced to spend all five years of his short life in hospital while the federal and provincial governments argued over which was responsible for his care, as well as the long struggle of Indigenous activists to force the Canadian government to enforce “Jordan’s Principle” — the promise that no First Nations children would experience inequitable access to government-funded services again.
Elliot Page brings attention to the injustices and injuries caused by environmental racism in his home province, in this urgent documentary on Indigenous and African Nova Scotian women fighting to protect their communities, their land, and their futures.
Le fantôme de Mirabel
Two long-time friends, Makahi and Yannick, reflect on their respective journeys as artists in different disciplines—visual arts and music production. The two delve into their experiences as young Black artists in Ottawa, sharing insights into their paths and creative growth.