Feature-length documentary as part of Pierre Perrault's Abitibian Cycle. The filmmaker questions the past and present of Abitibi and draws up, face to face, the promises of colonization in the 1930s and the great disappointment caused by the closing of the land in the 1970s. There are witnesses to the heroic era, including the cultivator Hauris Lalancette, as well as extracts from films by Father Maurice Proulx (1934-1940).
A working class family leaves St-Henri quarter in Montréal to build a new home in the countryside.
A documentary about direct-cinema from its very beginnings (Nanook of the North) to the fake-direct-cinema of the Blair Witch Project. All the important direct-cinema filmmakers are portrayed and/or interviewed: Leacock, Wiseman, Maysles, Pennebaker, Reisz and others.
A first look at Strobus / Banksiana: a musical and visual work supported by two important protagonists of the Quebec forest: the white pine and the jack pine. Duu's second album, first double album : each half is distinguished by its sonic palette, its writing style, and the type of conifer that surrounds it. This short documentary offers an intimate glimpse into the creator's journey through the paths that led him to conceive this personal diptych, where he embraces his duality in this visceral desire to celebrate nature every day.
"Montréal under the snow and the cold winter. It is the period of the year when the garage owners strike it rich. The automobile at the service of man? This small opus would rather show the contrary. This is one in a series of eight films titled “Chronicle of Everyday Life,” a project that filmmaker Jacques Leduc took four years to realize, and whose goal was to revisit Direct Cinema at a moment when it was already heavily “contaminated” by mainstream TV." - Anthology Film Archives
"This documentary depicts a canoe being built in the traditional manner. Cesar Newashish, a 67-year-old Attikamek of the Manawan Reserve North of Montréal, uses only birchbark, cedar splints, spruce roots, and gum. With a sure hand he works methodically to fashion a craft unsurpassed in function or beauty of design. Building a canoe solely from the materials that the forest provides may become a lost art, even among the Native Peoples whose traditional craft it is. The film is free of spoken commentary but text appears on the screen in Cree, French, and English." - Anthology Film Archives
"This feature documentary is considered to be the forerunner of the NFB's Challenge for Change Program. The film offers in inside look at 3 weeks in the life of the Bailey family. Trouble with the police, begging for stale bread, and the birth of another child are just some of the issues they face. Through it all, the father tries to explain his family's predicament. Although filmed in Montreal, the film offers an anatomy of poverty as it occurs throughout North America." - NFB
"This film is one of the first French Unit productions of the “Société Nouvelle/Challenge for Change” program. When an old area of Montréal is to be demolished to make way for a new low-income housing development, is there anything the residents can do to protect their own interests? The film documents such a situation in the Little Burgundy district of Montréal and shows how the residents organized themselves into a committee that successfully influenced the city’s housing policy." - Anthology Film Archives
Michel Brault, l'instinct de vue
After the death of her adoptive father, a young filmmaker delves into his video archives only to realize that she never filmed him—except once, by accident. As the end of the world approaches, she now sets out to capture the extraordinary in the ordinary… which, too, is destined to disappear.
Several key words emerge from Hugo Pratt's work, inseparable from his life: travel, adventure, erudition, esotericism, mystery, poetry, melancholy... and of course, Corto Maltese, his hero and alter ego, who established him as one of the greatest names in comic books. Born in Italy in 1927 and dying in Switzerland sixty-eight years later, Hugo Pratt, born without an H and with only one T, grew up in the shadow of a fascist father who took him at a very young age to Ethiopia, which was occupied by Mussolini's forces. The teenager developed a fascination for the wide-open spaces of Africa, soon followed by an irresistible attraction to the Indian world. This was the starting point for a life of travel, success, conquests, rare failures, and marked by his veneration for the American cartoonist Milton Caniff, his absolute master.
Come back with us to Ancient Greece, 2,500 Years ago to the original Olympic Games. The ancient Games, like our modern Olympics, included champions and cheaters, glory and scandals, bitter rivalries and contests of strength, speed and savage combat. Set in 448 BC when the pounding of horse's hooves and the brutal hand-to-hand combat could be heard and seen by the crowds that filled the Olympic stadium. This one-hour special event follows the glory and corruption of the arc of a single, five-day Olympiad. The competitions include chariot racing, running, jumping, discus, javelin and two man-to-man combat finals-boxing and pankration, a form of extreme fighting in which death was not uncommon. With the help of sports historians and great athletes such as George Chuvalo and Olympic medallists Donovan Bailey and Angela Schneider, viewers travel back to a very different life-in a very different world.
The real Great Escape didn't feature Steve McQueen racing through the Third Reich on a motorcycle like in the 1963 movie, but the big breakout was still thrilling in every way. This program sheds new light on the audacious escape of 76 Allied airmen from a Nazi POW camp during World War II.
Documentary/interview with Tomas Milian as he returns to Cuba for the first time since he left in the 1950's.
In 1973, little girls could not play Little League Baseball. Carolyn King's epic Summer helped to change all that. In what is one of the most important events in the struggle for Equal Rights, "The Girl in Centerfield, a documentary by Emmy-Nominated filmmakers Brian Kruger and Buddy Moorehouse tells the story that changed youth baseball forever.
Making a big wave dream come true. Ocean Driven is a true and gripping story that chronicles the development of South African big wave surfer Chris Bertish. His single minded pursuit of his dreams and refusal to let seemingly insurmountable obstacles stand in his way, culminates with his winning the world's premiere big wave surfing competition at Mavericks in California 2010. Moments after nearly drowning, Bertish takes the world by storm in the largest waves ever seen there. Ocean Driven is a tale of overcoming obstacles and fears, redefining possible, and empowering viewers to never give up in pursuit of their dreams. Ocean Driven features countless big wave legends, ocean specialists, and breathtaking images.
The real story about the camel ride around Mallorca, that journalist Miguel Vidal and painter Gustavo Peñalver did in 1964. Sometimes truth is stranger than fiction. This is one of them.
An adventure in the jungles of Roncador, marking the historic encounter with the fearsome Xavantes.
Wired For Sound documents the role of the Gibson guitar throughout the evolution of rock music.
Guten Tag, RDA !