The NFB is committed to respecting your privacy

We use cookies to ensure that our site works efficiently, as well as for advertising purposes.

If you do not wish to have your information used in this way, you can modify your browser settings before continuing your visit.

Learn more
Skip to content Accessibility
My List
Your request could not be processed.
This film is already in your list

Crafts and Techniques of Yesteryear (6)

  • The Jean Richard
    The Jean Richard
    René Bonnière  &  Pierre Perrault 1963 29 min
    The building of a goélette, the wooden coastal freighter of the St. Lawrence River. Although ships of steel may replace these sturdy wooden vessels, the Jean Richard, shown in construction in this film, is still one ship built with all the old pride in craftsmanship.
  • Ka Ke Ki Ku
    Ka Ke Ki Ku
    René Bonnière  &  Pierre Perrault 1960 29 min
    This early work from Pierre Perrault, made in collaboration with René Bonnière, chronicles summer activities in the Innu communities of Unamenshipu (La Romaine) and Pakuashipi. Shot by noted cinematographer Michel Thomas-d’Hoste, it documents the construction of a traditional canoe, fishing along the Coucouchou River, a procession marking the Christian feast of the Assumption, and the departure of children for residential schools—an event presented here in an uncritical light. Perrault’s narration, delivered by an anonymous male voice, underscores the film’s outsider gaze on its Indigenous subjects. The film is from Au Pays de Neufve-France (1960), a series produced by Crawley Films, an important early Canadian producer of documentary films.

    Alexis Joveneau, a Catholic priest with the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, worked in the Innu community of Unamenshipu (La Romaine) between 1960 and 1985, and appears in five NFB productions: Attiuk (1960), Ka Ke Ki Ku (1960), Le goût de la farine (1977), Le pays de la terre sans arbre ou le Mouchouânipi (1980) and La grande allure II (1985). Joveneau is seen in several scenes of Ka Ke Ki Ku, teaching Innu children and providing Innu-aimun/French translation.

    In November 2017, during Canada’s National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, a number of Innu women from Unamenshipu testified that they had been sexually and physically abused by Joveneau, who died in 1992. Many other women subsequently came forward with similar allegations, and on March 29, 2018, a request for a class action was filed in Quebec Superior Court on behalf of the women against the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate. The class action was authorized on November 16, 2021. The Oblates named in the suit include Alexis Joveneau, Omer Provencher, Edmond Brouillard, Raynald Couture and Édouard Meilleur.”
  • The Saddlemaker
    The Saddlemaker
    Grant Crabtree 1961 16 min
    From Alberta's cowboy country, a story of a young girl's first love, a saddle. Every saddle that leaves Felmer Eamor's shop becomes a proud possession. In this film you sympathize with a fourteen-year-old girl's wish to have such a saddle, and the bluff she pulls to get it.
  • The Skiff of Renald and Thomas
    The Skiff of Renald and Thomas
    We're sorry, this content is not available in your location.
    Bernard Gosselin 1980 57 min
    Five men work together in a communal effort to build a skiff on Ile-aux-Coudres, an island in the St. Lawrence River. It is built in a traditional fashion, all the more remarkable because no blueprint is used. The film does not merely record a building tradition, it reveals the character of the craftsmen, who are influenced by a pre-industrial way of life underscored by spontaneity and wit.
  • Turlutte
    Turlutte
    René Bonnière  &  Pierre Perrault 1960 29 min
    In a valley on the North Shore of the St. Lawrence, the seasons unfold with their chores and pleasures: children gathering roses for honey, an old uncle's wine, pressing apple cider, three brothers shelling broads beans, their flails beating time, grandmother's spinning wheel, the old stone mill, the rushing rivulets of spring, a silvery catch of capelin washed up on shore by the May Moon.
  • Winter Crossing at L'Isle-Aux-Coudres
    Winter Crossing at L'Isle-Aux-Coudres
    René Bonnière  &  Pierre Perrault 1960 29 min
    On an island the road ends where it begins, at the wharf. The wharf is the link to the rest of the world, until winter cuts it off. But the islanders know the winter sea and its movements. They judge the ice by its colours, avoiding the open channels, fighting through the slushy fragil ice, catching their footing on the chunk ice, and running all-out across the solid ice to the North Shore.