Canada Vignettes

A vignette with Dr. Joe MacInnis and his diving team assembling a "Bubble" in the Arctic Ocean.

A vignette exploring the depths of the Arctic Ocean.

Bill Miner was a train robber in British Columbia at the turn of the century. This animated film depicts a disastrous episode in his career.

This very short documentary from the Canada Vignettes series provides a short history of the Bluenose schooner, a celebrated racing ship and hard-working fishing vessel that became a provincial icon for Nova Scotia and an important Canadian symbol in the 1930s.

A vignette on the travelling calliope (also known as steam organ), a musical instrument that produces sound by sending steam through large locomotive whistles.

This installment in the Canada Vignettes series depicts the Canadian Forces Air Demonstration Aerobatics team at work.

This short stop-motion animation takes a humorous look at the theme of transportation. Forget trains and planes—the best way to get across the country is by catapult!

This vignette illustrates the variety of professions, people and technical procedures required by the filmmaking process.

Easily one of the most often-requested films in the NFB collection, this lighthearted animated short is based on the song “The Log Driver’s Waltz” by Wade Hemsworth. Kate and Anna McGarrigle sing along to the tale of a young girl who loves to dance and chooses to marry a log driver over his more well-to-do competitors.

In this animated short from the Canada Vignette series, learn how societies in evolution are often in danger of self-destruction.

This short animation from Oscar® winner John Weldon is a hilarious "cat and dog fight" film that also reminds us to keep emergency numbers close to our telephones.

This short animation attempts to show the landscape of Canadians through a series of transforming faces -- young, old and from many different backgrounds, illustrating the great variety of people living in the country.

This short documentary vignette reveals the curious origin of the name of Flin Flon, Manitoba.

A Canada Vignette giving a humorous animated version of the history of Fort Prince of Wales from its construction to its capture by the French.

A portrait of Mrs. Helen Law, a Chinese immigrant to Canada, as witnessed through the eyes of her son, a first-generation Canadian.

This very short film from the Canada Vignettes series presents a montage of watercolor images depicting the work and occasional play of a farm family.

This animated short illustrates how at one time horses provided man with unprecedented mobility and how the arrival of the iron horse brought this era to an end.

On a beautiful summer’s day in Nunavik, a family enjoys the pleasures of berry picking and fishing as the sound of two Elders throat-singing fills the environment. Directed by Alanis Obomsawin as part of the Canada Vignettes series.

This very short film from the Canada Vignettes series offers an animated history of logging on the British Columbia coast.

A love story between an English boy and a French girl that takes place at a roller skating rink.

This animated short tells a humourous Hebrew folk tale about a man's venture to introduce onions to a far away kingdom and a disreputable man's attempt to exploit that.

This short film from the Canada Vignettes series depicts the Montreal of 1905-1910 with hand-painted vintage postcards.

This short vignette features coal mines in New Waterford and Glace Bay, Nova Scotia, along with traditional Cape Breton folk songs sung by Men of the Deeps - a miners' choral group.

In this short from the Canada Vignettes series, the Earl of Caledon of Tyrone, Ireland, acquires an elegantly tailored deerskin coat. The coat is trimmed with fringe and brightly dyed porcupine quill embroidery, in a fashion popularized by the Métis.

In this short documentary from the Canada Vignettes series, a Saskatchewan grain elevator is moved across the snow-covered prairie to a new home after nearly a half-century of use; from Greenstreet to Marshall, Saskatchewan (about 20 miles away). The film follows the lifting and transporting of the 9-storey, 200-ton structure, and examines the feelings of the people as they witness the final passing of their town's one and only grain elevator.

In this short film from the Canada Vignettes series, historical events are depicted through simulated 1878 news broadcasts.

This short film from the Canada Vignettes series features tenor Roger Doucet singing the Canadian national anthem, O Canada, before a hockey game in the Montreal Forum.

This very short animation from the Canada Vignettes series is a visual interpretation of the poem “Riverdale Lion” by Canadian poet and essayist John Robert Colombo.

In this short vignette, skier Kathy Kreiner prepares for and participates in her Olympic gold-medal race at Innsbruck.

This very short film from the Canada Vignettes series documents the annual pilgrimage that members of Saskatchewan’s Métis Catholic community make to St. Laurent, a village in the Duck Lake area that became the Métis nation’s spiritual centre at the time of the 1885 Northwest Rebellion.

This short film from the Canada Vignettes series profiles a unique French-Canadian family, the Fourniers, 12 of whom work as stunt men and women for films.

Life in Canada is reflected by people's comments on trees as a tree is shown undergoing seasonal changes.

A vignette showing Dr. Joe MacInnis and his diving team placing a Canadian flag at the North Pole.

This vignette shows the ceremonial totem-pole raising by the Nisgha Nation at Ayanish.

This short film from the Canada Vignettes series chronicles the history of Labrador's Inuit and the role of the Moravian missionaries.

Please note that this is an archival film that makes use of the word “Eskimo,” an outdated and offensive term. While the origin of the word is a matter of some contention, it is no longer used in Canada. The term was formally rejected by the Inuit Circumpolar Council in 1980 and has subsequently not been in use at the NFB for decades. This film is therefore a time-capsule of a bygone era, presented in its original version. The NFB apologizes for the offence caused.

This very short animation from the Canada Vignettes series illustrates the hardships of voyageurs' lives in the early Canadian fur trade.

Wild rice is an important source of food and revenue for many Anishinaabe people, who sometimes travel hundreds of kilometres to harvest the grain in the region around Kenora, Ontario. Directed by Alanis Obomsawin as part of the Canada Vignettes series.

This very short animated film from the Canada Vignettes series depicts a large animal that lived on the Canadian tundra over 10,000 years ago: the woolly mammoth.

This short animated film is about Wop May, one of Canada's leading bush pilots in the 1920s.

A profile of Haida artist Bill Reid and his work.

In this animated short, the maple leaf on the Canadian flag turns into two profiles that illustrate the many relationships between people.

In this short film from the Canada Vignettes series, a map of Canada morphs into human forms that share the country's natural resources to the rhythm of a dance.