The Boat that Ian Built

Follow 2 Canadians, Bob Lush and Mike Birch, aboard their yachts during the 1980 Observer Singlehanded Transatlantic Race. More than a record of this prestigious international sailing event, the resulting film is the starting point for an epic of challenge and determination.

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.

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.

This short documentary follows Gabe Etchinelle as builds a mooseskin boat as a tribute to an earlier way of life, where the Shotah Dene people would use a mooseskin boats and transport their families and cargo down mountain rivers to trading settlements throughout the Northwest Territories.

This documentary shows how a canoe is built the old way. César Newashish, a 67-year-old Atikamekw of the Manawan Reserve north of Montreal, uses only birchbark, cedar splints, spruce roots and gum. Building a canoe solely from the materials that the forest provides may become a lost art, even among the Indigenous peoples whose traditional craft it is. The film is without commentary but text frames appear on the screen in Cree, French and English.

This documentary features outdoorsman Bill Mason and his family as they camp and canoe in the wilderness. The film fosters an appreciation for the art of canoeing while celebrating the sheer joy and beauty of nature. Along their trip, the Masons experience countless adventures and some breathtaking scenery, including indigenous rock carvings by Lake Superior.

A taste of the sea and people who sail it from the ports of the Atlantic Bluenose coast. Some of the sailors seen and heard in this black and white film are famous: Bill Roue who designed the first Bluenose schooner (still on the Canadian dime) and Captain Angus Walter who brought her to victory.

This feature-length documentary follows naturalist Bill Mason on his journey by canoe into the Ontario wilderness. The filmmaker and artist begins on Lake Superior, then explores winding and sometimes tortuous river waters to the meadowlands of the river's source. Along the way, Mason paints scenes that capture his attention and muses about his love of the canoe, his artwork and his own sense of the land.

Mason also uses the film as a commentary on the link between God and nature and the vast array of beautiful canvases God created for him to paint. Features breathtaking visuals and exciting whitewater footage, with a musical score by Bruce Cockburn.

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

A close-up view of crew racing from the seat that counts the most--the place of the man at the oars. Filmed at St. Catharines, Ontario, on the occasion of a North American rowing competition, this film follows a University of British Columbia team through practice, trials and competition, and to the telling race when well-schooled movement, hard rhythm and finely tuned muscles sweep the light shells ever faster down the course to the finish line.

In this short documentary, massive ships harking from all four corners of the world majestically glide by on the St. Lawrence River as riverside residents watch. But they know nothing of the secrets hidden in these floating leviathans laden with colourful containers - except for a select few who get to briefly join their voyage when they guide the ocean-crossing ships safely into harbour.

Nadine Beaudet's World of Passage captures poetic fragments of life on board as sailors perform their endless tasks.

This film is part of the The first edition. of the 5 Shorts Project, created by the National Film Board of Canada and produced in conjunction with Spirafilm, a Quebec cooperative dedicated to independent cinema.

The second edition can be found here.
The third edition can be found here.

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.