The Days Before Christmas

Stanley Jackson, Wolf Koenig & Terence Macartney-Filgate,
1958,
29 min 3 s

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Synopsis
Point Of View

A black-and-white short documentary about Christmastime in Montreal. The milling crowds, department store Santas, Brink's messengers, kindergarten angels and boisterous nightclubs - all combine to make a vivid portrait of the holidays.

Albert Ohayon

What exactly goes on in a large Canadian city in the last few days before Christmas? Using this premise, an NFB film crew (featuring cameraman Michel Brault) was dispatched throughout Montreal just before Christmas 1957 to film what was happening, including the shopping frenzy and general merry making. The film would eventually be broadcast as part of the Candid Eye television series a year later and would be singled out as one of the best examples of direct cinema ever made at the NFB. The BBC would broadcast the film on Christmas Day 1959.

From the playlist : The 1950s: Television and the Move to Montreal