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Biodiversity in Film (Ages 12-14)

10 films
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To celebrate the International Year of Biodiversity 2010, the NFB, with the Canadian Commission for UNESCO, presents this playlist of NFB films to get people thinking about the connections between us and other species. Whether looking at the effects of factory farms, the reintroduction of displaced species or the damage caused by our own waste, these films demonstrate humanity's role in both damaging and preserving vital living networks and ecosystems. They highlight the complexity of the relationships between people and their environment.

Up next: Pocket Desert - Confessions of a Snake Killer
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Biodiversity in Film (Ages 12-14)

To celebrate the International Year of Biodiversity 2010, the NFB, with the Canadian Commission for UNESCO, presents this playlist of NFB films to get people thinking about the connections between us and other species.

Whether looking at the effects of factory farms, the reintroduction of displaced species or the damage caused by our own waste, these films demonstrate humanity's role in both damaging and preserving vital living networks and ecosystems. They highlight the complexity of the relationships between people and their environment.

Playlist

  • Pocket Desert - Confessions of a Snake Killer
    Pocket Desert - Confessions of a Snake Killer
    Teresa Marshall  &  Craig Berggold 1999 24 min

    This personal documentary is the story of Teresa Marshall, who grew up on a British Columbia ranch. Every child needs a demon, and Teresa took battle against rattlesnakes. In the dry interior of B.C., the south Okanagan and Similkameen valleys form the bio-region known as Canada's "pocket desert." As settlers' dreams of creating an agricultural Eden erase fragile desert lands that support a breathtaking array of wild species, the narrator and her snake-hunting neighbours are forced to examine their environmental attitudes.

  • Earth to Mouth
    Earth to Mouth
    Yung Chang 2002 41 min

    Filmed at the Wing Fong Farm in Ontario, this documentary follows the tilling, planting and harvesting of Asian vegetables destined for Chinese markets and restaurants. On 80 acres of land, Lau King-Fai, her son and a half-dozen migrant Mexican workers care for the plants. For Yeung Kwan, her son, the farm represents personal and financial independence. For his mother, it is an oasis of peace. For the Mexican workers, it provides jobs that help support their children back home.

  • St. Lawrence: Stairway to the Sea
    St. Lawrence: Stairway to the Sea
    Jacques Gagné  &  Jacques-Yves Cousteau 1982 1 h 36 min

    In this spectacular feature-length documentary, oceanographer Jacques Cousteau and an NFB crew sail up the St. Lawrence River to the Great Lakes on board the specially equipped vessel, the Calypso. They explore the countryside from their helicopter and plumb the depths of the waters in their diving saucer. They encounter shipwrecks, the Manicouagan power dam, Niagara Falls, the locks of the St. Lawrence Seaway and an underwater chase with caribou.

  • Being Caribou
    Being Caribou
    Leanne Allison  &  Diana Wilson 2004 1 h 12 min

    In this feature-length documentary, husband and wife team Karsten Heuer (wildlife biologist) and Leanne Allison (environmentalist) follow a herd of 120,000 caribou on foot across 1500 km of Arctic tundra. In following the herd's migration, the couple hopes to raise awareness of the threats to the caribou's survival. Along the way they brave Arctic weather, icy rivers, hordes of mosquitoes and a very hungry grizzly bear. Dramatic footage and video diaries combine to provide an intimate perspective of an epic expedition.

  • The Great Buffalo Saga
    The Great Buffalo Saga
    Michael McKennirey  &  Boyce Richardson 1985 55 min

    By the late 1800s the free-ranging buffalo of the western plains of North America were almost extinct. This documentary is the story of the buffalo's revival. Live action, eye-witness accounts and archival photos document our fascination with this ancient and legendary animal.

  • An Ecology of Hope
    An Ecology of Hope
    Fernand Dansereau 2001 1 h 24 min

    A documentary portrait of ecologist Pierre Dansereau, the film takes us from Baffin Island to New York City, from the Gaspé Peninsula to Brazil. At each stop on this world tour, we hear his story and witness landscapes of breathtaking beauty.

  • Uranium
    Uranium
    Magnus Isacsson 1990 47 min

    This documentary looks at the hazards of uranium mining in Canada. Toxic and radioactive waste pose environmental threats while the traditional economic and spiritual lives of the Indigenous people who occupy this land have been violated. Given our limited knowledge of the associated risks, this film questions the validity of continuing the mining operations.

  • Crapshoot: The Gamble with Our Wastes
    Crapshoot: The Gamble with Our Wastes
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    Jeff McKay 2003 52 min

    A hazardous mix of waste is flushed into the sewer every day. The billions of litres of water - combined with unknown quantities of chemicals, solvents, heavy metals, human waste and food - where does it all go? And what does it do to us? Filmed in Italy, India, Sweden, the United States and Canada, this bold documentary questions our fundamental attitudes to waste. Does our need to dispose of waste take precedence over public safety? What are the alternatives?

  • Atonement
    Atonement
    Michael McKennirey 1970 50 min

    This documentary shows efforts by Canadian wildlife specialists to preserve and nurture the creatures that remain in our wilderness areas, species such as the whooping crane, prairie falcons, bighorn sheep, bison, polar bears and grizzlies.

  • Never Lose Sight
    Never Lose Sight
    Sarah McNair-Landry 2009 21 min

    This short documentary presents the environmental challenges in Nunavut. Beneath the immaculate layer of snow, there are mountains of trash. Iqaluit's 2 dumps are filled beyond capacity and the municipality has no plan to solve the problem. Throughout the film, we discover the problems faced by this isolated region and learn just how serious they are. But above all, we hear a call to action from the residents, who don't want to see the North they love disappear. In French with English subtitles.