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The second of two coproductions by the British Broadcasting Corporation and the National Film Board of Canada, People of the Seal, Part 2: Eskimo Winter is compiled from some of the most vivid footage ever filmed of the life of the Netsilik Inuit in the Pelly Bay region of the Canadian Arctic. Together, the two films provide insight and understanding of a culture now almost vanished, as they show the incredible resourcefulness of the Netsilik (People of the Seal) who have adapted to one of the world's harshest environments. Part 2: Eskimo Winter shows how Inuit families gather in communities on the sea ice to harpoon seal as they come up through breating holes in the ice. Also seen is the mid-winter season, a time of intense socializing in the communal igloo, with games, contests and ceremonial activities.

This animated short by Evelyn Lambart is a visual adaptation of the famous Aesop fable "The Lion and the Mouse," in which a mouse proves to a lion that the weak and small may be of help to those much mightier than themselves.

L’Hiver bleu is an Abitibian chronicle that presents a snapshot of the region, its economic difficulties and its young people not knowing whether they want to settle down or go and try the adventure elsewhere.

Bizarre abstract stop-motion animation questioning traditional values in a period of great social upheaval.

Young Chinese-Canadian Susan Yee gives a tour of Montreal.

A middle-aged man travels to France and is discouraged by the attitudes of the people concerning his native land until he meets and begins relationships with two lonely women.

This film establishes a parallel between the 1970 electoral campaign in Québec and the 1936 campaign dominated by Maurice Duplessis. It shows the hope but also the uncertainty that existed in 1970. Had the Quiet Revolution really changed things in Québec? Was it possible that a new leader would emerge on the political scene? (NFB.ca)

A brittle marriage unravels when a professor’s affair with a male student comes to light. In response, his wife—played by Lois Maxwell—spirals into quiet retaliation, attempting her own transgressive connection while documenting everything in a diary she plans to expose. Peep (1984) is a tense, intimate portrait of revenge, repression, and the dangerous urge to turn private lives into public spectacle.

Hélène is a woman who already has, in her view, quite enough children. For some time she has secretly been taking birth control pills, but now she is too old to use them safely. When her husband Gabriel discovers the pills, he is distressed, since he wants a large family. The two of them discuss their differing attitudes and desires but come to no resolution.

A study of the wily brown rat, humankind's unwanted companion throughout the world, whose bite on the world's food resources adds to the growing threat of shortage. In a normal, free-ranging environment, the rat is more than a match for its hosts and colonies flourish. Under abnormal conditions of restricted space and limited food, a rat colony loses all 'social' constraints on behaviour. The film has implicit analogies for all animal behaviour, including humanity's. Plagues, predators and extermination attempts are among the topics discussed.

In 1940, two sisters work in an ammunition factory, but dream of marriage.

In this drama, Lesia convinces her English-Canadian friend Sarah to perform a Ukrainian dance with her as part of their school's Christmas pageant. Sarah's father, angry at the growing number of Ukrainian settlers, won't allow his daughter to participate. Despite the prejudices of their parents, the girls' friendship remains strong, and they meet in Sarah's barn to celebrate Christmas Day together. Part of the Adventures in History series.

This very short documentary from the Hinterland Who’s Who series introduces viewers to the black duck.

Canadians in search of the national identity will not find it fully fleshed in this film. An animated cartoon, it sees Canadians as pragmatists, adaptable to whatever climate or history place in their way. It is a boisterous, bubbling analysis of the Canadian character and, although it may not answer the question of the title, it does leave the feeling that being Canadian is not so exhausting as one might expect.

A young boy with his "Star Wars" comic book runs to the front window of a subway train and pretends to pilot a spaceship out of the station and into the black of space. He soon encounters Darth Vader.

Presents the history of the conflict between the Canadian government and the Kwakiutl Indians of the Northwest Pacific over the ritual of the Potlatch. Archival photographs and films, wax roll sound recordings, police reports, the original potlatch files, and correspondence of agents form the basis of the reconstruction of period events, while the film centres on a Potlatch given today by the Cranmer family of Alert Bay.

River (Planet Earth) is a student's audio-visual presentation of a river system and the importance of water to humans, to his professor who hates to be bored. Both serious and humorous, the film shows how water sustains life, feeds industry, provides power and irrigates the land. It shows how water is inverted, dammed, used and expelled. It talks of pollution. The film demonstrates how water affects the economy, sociology and ecology of a country.

A meditation on society's attitudes and beliefs, as explored through a New France fur trapper's relationship with a Native woman that spans centuries.

A series of interviews, combined with newsreel footage, that placed the American feminist movement in historical perspective. Six of the movement's founding women, including Betty Friedan and Kate Millett, discuss the issues that most concern them.

Lotte Reiniger's last film, following the adventures of two kingdoms through the overseeing eye of a destiny-knitting witch.

Edited from almost 100 km of film footage shot during the Games, this feature documentary is a breathtaking portrait of the 1976 Montreal Olympics. Much more than a simple record of the Games, the film approaches each event with the intention of revealing the athlete - whether winner or loser - as a unique individual.

The NFB filmed the table tennis competitions between teams of young Canadians and Chinese that took place in the People's Republic of China in the summer of 1973, the first time in twenty-five years that such filming was made possible. Shown are highlights of play at the China-Canada Friendship Meet, as well as some of the sightseeing taken in by the young Canadians--a visit, for example, to the Great Wall of China. Film without words.

This very short documentary from the Hinterland Who’s Who series introduces viewers to the raccoon.

In this witty documentary monologue, Glenn Gould reflects on his complex relationship with Toronto — praising its quietude, poking fun at its reputation, and weighing its cultural mosaic, urban resilience, and rivalry with Montreal. With his trademark mix of clarity, irony, and personal reminiscence, Gould reveals a bond with the city that is neither boosterish nor dismissive, but as nuanced and singular as the man himself.

This short documentary is the portrait of an 88-year-old woman who lives alone in a log cabin without running water or electricity in the Williams Lake area of British Columbia. The daughter of a Shuswap chief, Augusta lost her Indian status as the result of a marriage to a white man. She recalls past times, but lives very much in the present. Self-sufficient, dedicated to her people, she spreads warmth wherever she moves, with her songs and her harmonica.

Documentary on the egalitarian religious community of Solentiname in Nicaragua, with an extensive intevew with its founder, the poet Ernesto Cardenal. The film describes the aim of the Solentiname community and explains, through a thoroug interview, the ideas about Christianity, militancy and Marxism of Cardenal.

A director and an editor, both women, cannot work on a movie presenting the rape of a nurse without reacting on the scenes they're working on, the situation of womanhood in general, and the way the 'Justice' handle those cases of rape.

"The Hart of London" is an endlessly layered tour de force. It explores life and death, the sense of place and personal displacement, and the intricate aesthetics of representation. It is a personal and spiritual film, marked inevitably by Chambers’s knowledge that he had leukemia. The late American avant-garde filmmaker Stan Brakhage said of Hart, "If I named the five greatest films [ever made], this has got to be one of them." Even this high praise falls short of hyperbole. The Hart of London is at the centre of Chambers’s extraordinary achievement.

Nobody ever listens to Jacob, so he always has to repeat himself. A trip to the grocery store leads to a misunderstanding and Jacob falls asleep hiding in a park. When he wakes up, he discovers that he is in trouble for insulting the store clerk. He is sent to a prison for children that is located on Slimer's Island and is run by the Hooded Fang, an ex-wrestler who outwardly hates children. Meanwhile, Child Power representatives the Intrepid Shapiro and Fearless O'Toole try to find the prison's hidden location to help free the children.

'Roots Rock Reggae' depicts an unforgettable moment in Jamaica's history when music defined the island's struggles and immortalized its heroes. Director Jeremy Marre films Bob Marley and the Wailers, and Lee 'Scratch' Perry record in his legendary Black Ark studio with The Upsetters. Jimmy Cliff rehearses with Sly and Robbie, while Inner Circle's historic live gig is recorded on the violent Kingston streets. The legendary Abyssinians harmonize their haunting Rastafarian songs; Joe Higgs (formerly Bob Marley's teacher) plays and talks; majestic toaster U Roy raps alongside The Mighty Diamonds, and Third World record in a Kingston studio. There is also early archive footage of Toots and the Maytals, and Haile Selessie's royal visit to Jamaica while police and thieves battle it out on the streets, and the ghettos erupt in violence. 1977: An extraordinary year for Reggae music.

Tukiki is a small Eskimo boy who sets out to discover the meaning of Christmas along with a magical character known as North Wind. He visits different places and learns about their customs of Christmas which brings about a turn of events when he arrives home.

An interview with French film director Eric Rohmer.

In 1837, in Quebec, against a historical backdrop of rebellion against the English, we follow the sentimental drama of Simon de Bellefeuille and Julie, the chosen one of his heart, destined for another.

This experimental short film deals with anguish, as imagined by Claude Péloquin, author, poet, performer and filmmaker, in the early 1970s. Vertiginous camera angles, oppressive places and a disturbing soundtrack, the filmmaker uses his sound environment and the words of the interpreter Josée Vanasse to express this generalized disease at a time of great acceleration and fury for life.

Through rare film footage and interviews with some of the pioneers who made film history, this documentary traces the history of filmmaking in Canada from 1939-1953. It covers the establishment of the National Film Board in 1939; the war years; Canada's first Oscar; and John Grierson's sudden demise as Canada's driving force in the industry. We witness the struggles of the private film producers, the development of the film industry in Québec, and the emergence of the documentary. Above all, the film asks whether the alternating fortunes of the Canadian film industry, in the face of an overwhelming American presence, reflect the attitudes of the Canadian people towards themselves and their culture.

Stark black and white photographs of faces airbrushed with color.

Paul, a biochemist with a quiet life, meets a very young hitchhiker named Hélène. She embodies bohemianism, love, and fantasy... everything he lost after marrying Claire, a beautiful, sophisticated, bourgeois blonde, thirteen years earlier. Paul and Hélène become lovers. He sets her up in a small room in a seedy motel. Naturally, this reaches Claire. And to make matters worse, she also discovers that Hélène is pregnant by her husband. Wanting to avoid scandal, but also because she has had children and realizes that Hélène will not be able to decently take care of hers in this miserable room, she invites him to come and stay with her. A complex relationship, somewhere between fascination and repulsion, is born between the two women.

Animated short film made in three parts on the pin screen by Alexeieff-Parker. With these three exercises, director Jacques Drouin experiments with the play of light and shadow alone. Original, this experience presents us with a reality that is not truncated although it may appear as follows: the faculty of wonder will be able to create the necessary link between everyday life and the way it was rendered.

This is a very unusual and original film, breaking new ground in filmmaking methods as well as in ways of viewing things. All the usual facts about Sweden have been given a hundred times over, and often in better forms than film can offer, but in this film the director has launched into a form of cinematic observation and commentary that offers an entirely new experience of things Swedish.

Guest speakers from "Women In Motion" Conference, Vancouver, B.C. 1975.

An animated version of the Oscar Wilde story about a conceited firework rocket, whose pride hides his downfall in the world.

A nature documentary, the film depicts the wildlife of Africa and efforts to protect it through the creation and maintenance of game reserves.

Smitty, a young man sentenced to six months in prison for marijuana possession eventually becomes the sexual subordinate of another inmate, Rocky.

An egg desperately tries to prevent being hatched. In this animated short from the Canada Vignette series, learn how societies in evolution are often in danger of self-destruction.

Pablo, Chilean emigrant, ex-professor, seeks work in a Montréal steel mill. Cut off from family, country and profession, he is baffled by a language he doesn't speak and a job he doesn't know. The film reproduces with accuracy and sensitivity his efforts to adjust to a new and bewildering world.

This very short documentary from the Hinterland Who’s Who series introduces viewers to the grizzly bear.

This very short documentary from the Hinterland Who’s Who series introduces viewers to the black bear.

A study of life at Christmastime in Moose Factory, an old settlement mainly composed of Cree families on the shore of James Bay, composed entirely of children's crayon drawings and narrated by children.

This short animated film features the sandman and the creatures he sculpts out of sand. These lively creatures build a castle and celebrate the completion of their new home, only to be interrupted by an uninvited guest. Cleverly constructed with nuance, the film leaves interpretation open to the viewer. The film took home an Oscar® for Best Animated Short Film.

A caustic and humorous challenge to the traditional male and female roles and stereotypes inculcated by our upbringing. The film illustrates two opposing worlds: that of the “eternal masculine” and that of the “eternal feminine” through the behaviors, concerns, work and aspirations of women and men, and through the games, projects and dreams of children.

This feature documentary is a fascinating and spirited portrait of the life and times of the legendary Quebec politician and four-time mayor of Montreal Camillien Houde. Using rare archival footage and interviews with ex-colleagues, aides and friends, the film presents a comprehensive profile of this incredible, and, to some, infamous, man.

A lonely gay man discovers friends, love and activism in this rediscovered educational film made by the Campaign for Homosexual Equality.

This animated film, a small educational musical comedy, offers the viewer a proper enigma. He is very smart who succeeds in solving it the first time; because against this background of cold reasoning, fantasy and delirium retain all their rights.

Shades of Silk is a film of mood and memory; two Chinese women, who had been friends in school, are caught between a longing for social stability and something much more fulfilling but frightening and vague in their relationship. A large part of the action takes place in the Shanghai of 1935 although the film was shot entirely on location in Paris.

A presentation of the historical process of rape, followed by a more recent approach of current studies that reinforce ÒRape Reliefs own statistics.

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.

Industrial pollution causes water poisoning and generalized sickness in a nearby city and is the start of a major news scandal.

Documentary on the life of Hubert Aquin. Alive, he was a dazzling and extraordinary character. Dead, he is already legendary. From his legend, everything is both true and false. Neither biography nor critical work, this film is an evocation of his universe.