Juggernaut

In this installment of the Eye Witness series from 1947, we visit Chalk River, Canada's atomic energy project, for an update. We see the production and handling of radioactive isotopes destined for medical and agricultural research. Then we visit South Africa for a report on the Canadian trade mission while surveying the industrialization that's taken place and affected the Commonwealth nation.

This short documentary offers a look at Canada’s Chalk River Project in the late 1940s. While humanity pondered the ultimate threat or promise of atomic energy, Chalk River scientists worked on the first set of experiments that attempted to apply atomic energy to medical and biological uses. Inside the Atom examines this frontier of science and assesses its value in terms of human progress.

This documentary from 1960 forms a two-part study of nuclear power in Canada, guided by Larry Henderson, skilled observer, analyst, and commentator on public affairs. The first part shows civilian applications of nuclear power outside Canada, while the second part shows the history of atomic energy development in Canada, from the outset of WWII to the installations at Chalk River.

This film deals straightforwardly with the consequences of a nuclear attack for the Canadian Prairies. The Prairies are singled out because of their proximity to huge stockpiles of intercontinental ballistic missiles located in North Dakota. Scenes include a visit to a missile base and to an emergency government bunker in Manitoba. A doctor, a farmer and a civil defence coordinator provide different perspectives on nuclear war. Although the film focuses on one region, it provides a model for people everywhere who would like to know more about their own situation but don't know what questions to ask.

This documentary is a portrait of modern-day Pondicherry, an ancient city near the southern tip of India. For several centuries an outpost of France, the city is now home to Auroville, a spiritual community growing on its periphery. There, European and North American devotees of Sri Aurobindo, a Bengali poet and mystic, come to live the contemplative life. Their guru is a 94-year-old woman from France. This mecca of sorts is seen through the eyes of Albert Jordan, a professor from Concordia University, in Montreal, who spent a year there with his family in 1971.

The NFB’s 7th Academy-Award winning film. This short film is comprised of a lecture given to students by outspoken nuclear critic Dr. Helen Caldicott, president of Physicians for Social Responsibility in the USA. Her message is clear: disarmament cannot be postponed. Archival footage of the bombing of Hiroshima and images of its survivors seven months after the attack heighten the urgency of her message.

This feature documentary focuses on the reality of life before, during, and after the signing of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), and the profound effects the economic agreements between big business and government can have on human lives.

Filmed over a three year period in Canada, the United States, and Mexico, this documentary poses a sobering question: In this global war of cut-rate economies, are people on the losing side?

This feature documentary chronicles the lives of young call-centre workers in Bombay (Mumbai), India. The film profiles several characters who attempt to sell phone services to clients in the UK, showing both sides of globalization’s impact on India – the economic benefits as well as the break with tradition and loss of innocence. A compelling insider’s look at youth culture in India and the growing number of young people who choose to follow the American dream, Indian-style.

This short film explores the effects of atomic radiation on living things. It starts off with a discussion on the most familiar form of radiant energy (the sun) and goes on to include a demonstration of radiation. A discussion of the possible genetic alterations follows.

An exotic view of Pondicherry, former French colony on India's southeastern coast. This is a film of observation, made without commentary, but replete with impressions of this colourful old French-Indian port where life begins and ends in the streets. Life here is like a river, and only the camera can catch and hold the thousand-and-one sights that pour by the awed spectator. Film without words.

This short documentary depicts the stories of two hibakusha, survivors of the 1945 atomic bomb attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This film follows them on their mission to New York as representatives of the Japanese Peace Movement at the second United Nations Special Session on Disarmament held in June 1982.