After Prison What?

Part of the Canada Carries On series, this short documentary reports on the conditions in a Canadian penitentiary, focusing on the treatments developed to reduce the amount of recidivism. Prisoners spend the majority of their days in cells, but they also work—in quarry gangs, on farms, and as tailors and shoe-repairmen. Monthly visitors are allowed, but movements within the prison are tightly controlled. This film is a revealing portrait of the criminal justice system and its philosophies on recidivism in the middle of the 20th century.

This short film is a humorous look at the tourist industry in Canada. In tongue-in-cheek fashion, it points out the importance of good public relations in the tourist industry - more specifically, what not to do to tourists.

This short 1949 documentary studies the impact Canada's National Health Program has had on people who might otherwise not had been able to obtain medical help.

This award-winning feature-length drama from the 1960s tells the story of a teenage boy who rebels against his parents' middle-class goals and conventions.

For more background information on this film, please visit the NFB.ca blog.

This feature film, fictional in presentation but based on incidents from actual case files of the Department of National Revenue, depicts an investigation into a suspected tax fraud. A cast of Canadian actors convincingly portrays the investigation of the dealings of a successful building contractor charged with income tax evasion. As in the best of detective dramas, suspense builds during the conduct of the enquiry and in the persons who become involved.

Guilty of loving life! A dramatization of an actual court case in turn-of-the-century Québec. A lively, outgoing woman is accused of murdering her husband in collaboration with the hired hand. The townspeople do not appreciate her robust personality and the proceedings in court degenerate to a judgment of her character. Filled with stunning visual imagery, this feature film captures the spirit of the time and place. Particularly useful for those interested in history, law or women's issues. With English subtitles.

The NFB's 42nd Oscar®-nominated film.

This dramatic film introduces us to Tommy, a World War II veteran who rooms alone, waiting for his pension cheque to arrive, passing the time in the evenings with his cronies in the Legion Hall. Lennie can claim only a third of Tommy's years, but he prowls the same area of town, and the two have more in common than either of them realizes. Both their lives lack a sense of place and purpose. The story occurs early in November and leads up to an event that provides one of Tommy's few remaining moments of glory, the annual veterans' Remembrance Day parade.

This short fiction tells the story of Eddie, a young man who "borrows" a motorbike parked in front of a store and takes his girl for a spin—a brash decision with disastrous and alienating consequences. The film, a commentary on a society that often offers youth little purpose or sense of accomplishment, is a play-by-play exploration of the clash between young people's impulsiveness and society's need for law and order.

In this animated film for five- to eight-year-olds, a group of schoolchildren are amazed to discover that one of their classmates does not have enough to eat. With the help of their teacher, the children come to understand that his hardship affects them all and that the fight against poverty requires solidarity and sharing. Film without words.

This short, fiction film follows a young newspaper boy on his route in the crowded inner city. Set to a soundtrack of the blues, but with no words, we enter his gritty world of apartment buildings, rooming houses and dilapidated dwellings. At some doors he tosses his papers with neat precision, at others with deliberate carelessness. His interactions show the malice and kindness of his life, both given and received.

Renowned Métis author and screenwriter Maria Campbell explores themes of cultural identity, sexual assault and the familial impact of colonialism in The Red Dress, echoing the themes of her seminal memoir, Halfbreed.

Kelly is a Métis man without treaty or hunting rights, struggling to sustain his traditional life. His daughter Theresa longs for a red dress from France that she believes will give her power and strength, as the bear claw once did for her great-grandfather Muskwa. When Theresa escapes an assault and Kelly turns his back on his daughter, he realizes that he must reconnect with his culture in order to make things right. Today, the red dress is a powerful symbol recognizing over 1000 missing and murdered Indigenous women in Canada.