Back to the Land

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).

1976-01-01 | fr

Cinéma Vérité: Defining the Moment

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.

2000-06-09 | en

The Things I Cannot Change

"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

1967-01-01 | en

Belle famille

A working class family leaves St-Henri quarter in Montréal to build a new home in the countryside.

1978-07-11 | fr

Friday: About Cars

"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

1978-01-01 | en

Michel Brault, l'instinct de vue

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Little Burgundy

"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

1968-01-01 | fr

Excelsior

An expedition through the mountains of Nepal, during which 9 peaks are climbed.

1931-03-10 | de

9/11: The Heartland Tapes

Across America, the morning of September 11, 2001 began routinely, with news and radio broadcasts sharing local human interest stories and traffic reports. But by 9 a.m., the day's narrative had taken a tragic turn. Most of us are familiar with the national news coverage of 9/11, but the local reporting from TV and radio affiliates across the nation was no less important and no less compelling. This is an account of the tragedy as it unfolded, and as it aired in American cities large and small, told without narration or interviews.

2013-09-08 | en

No News

How is it like to be forced to wait while people are drowning just a few miles away? "No News" gives an insight into the absurdity of European migration policy.

2021-01-18 | de

Folkrace

Emma and Lina are two young woman, passionate about motor sport and living in the northeastern part of Sweden. During the folk race season, we get a rare glimpse into their lives, culture and dreams - around the kitchen table, in the garage and on the racetrack.

2024-07-26 | sv

Monsieur Albert, prophète

Life in a community of Harist disciples in the village of Bregbo, Côte d'Ivoire, under the aegis of their "prophet" Alberto Atcho. 50 km from Abidjan, magician Albert Archo treats the sick, most of them mentally ill. Through a combination of public confession and the use of local medicinal plants, he achieves spectacular healing.

1963-01-01 | fr

Best of Worlds: Life at its Alpine Limits

For 5000 years, man has sought to inhabit the more accessible areas of Europe, but at its very heart, in the high zones of the Alps, there exists a world parallel to ours. This is a world in which species have survived dramatic climatic upheavals, human exploitation of the land, and now the pressures of mass tourism. The Alps are home to plants and animals that owe their success to an amazing capacity to live in conditions that, for other species–humans included–would be barely tolerable. For them, however, this is everyday life.

2014-08-07 | en

Great White Serial Killer: Sea of Blood

A Mexican fishing village faces fatal shark attacks on mollusk divers. Investigators arrive, capturing footage of a massive great white offshore. They discover the sharks may be using the village's waters as a nursery ground.

2024-07-08 | en

Swan Song

An immersive, behind-the-scenes look at one of the world’s leading ballet companies as it mounts a new production of Swan Lake. Ballet icon Karen Kain, on the eve of her retirement, directs the National Ballet of Canada. The film weaves together intimate scenes of the creative process and the dancers’ personal lives. Executive Produced by Neve Campbell.

2023-09-22 | en

Banksy: Street Rat

Banksy changed the modern art world, taking it from galleries and onto the street. His identity has always been hidden from the public; keeping this secret was key to avoiding any criminal charges. He started as a freehand graffiti artist in Bristol but turned to the art of stencilling after realising how much quicker it was to complete work. Banksy developed a distinctive iconography of highly recognisable images, such as rats and police officers, that communicated his anti-authoritarian message. As his art spread, so did his popularity. He made headlines for his Kissing Coppers, painted the West Bank Wall and walked into galleries and hung his own work. Banksy is one of the best-known artists of the 21st Century, yet, does anybody know who he really is?

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This Is How a Child Becomes a Poet

The last day of Patrizia Cavalli’s home. Before it’s all gone.

2023-08-30 | fr

Fragments of a Life Loved

For over thirty years, between Paris and Rome, Chloé Barreau has been filming her love life. While in a relationship, she would already build its memory by filming, taking pictures, writing about it… but what do her exes remember? What is their side of the story? This film traces a woman's life, based exclusively on the interviews of people who loved her. Intimate testimonies and private items reveal the universal paths of the feeling of love.

2023-09-13 | it

Shutter Island: Into the Lighthouse

This thoughtful, often fascinating featurette focuses on the psychiatric aspects of "Shutter Island" and how consultant James Gilligan counseled the actors so they could better understand their reactions and motivations. We also learn about the controversial yet prevalent practice of lobotomizing violent mental patients and how the more humane approach of pharma-psychology gradually replaced it around the time period in which the story takes place.

2010-06-08 | en

Skerry Fairy-Tale

The year is 1891. The director of MoDo, Frans Kempe, is about to build the largest and most modern sawmill in Europe and a complete ideal society after his own mind. The place he chooses is Norrbyskär, some skerries in the Baltic Sea outside the cost of Västerbotten in northern Sweden. The experimental society with it's 1500 inhabitants and the large sawmill will live for almost 60 years.

1994-04-15 | sv