Le cocher

A tongue-in-cheek archival film documenting a day in the life of a veteran horse-drawn carriage driver. Though the tourists that flock to the historic avenues of the Old City have changed considerably, the Old World charm of Québec City is timeless.

This colourful archival record of Québec City’s Winter Carnival shows that many popular events of today—pageants, parades, boat races, folk dancing, fireworks and torchlight skiing—were also favourites 50 years ago. (Please note that this is an archival film. This film was produced in 1957 and includes mostly original footage from the 1956 Quebec City Carnaval. It is a time-capsule of a bygone era. To modern audiences, parts of the footage from the Carnaval may be perceived as offensive, as certain individuals were dressed in Indigenous garb and others wore blackface. While such practices are not condoned today, the footage illustrates tolerated practices and customs of that era.)

Children guide the audience through a vision of shifting digital polygons in this CGI take of the beloved NFB classic Helicopter Canada.

Produced as part of the 10th edition of the NFB’s Hothouse apprenticeship.

Filmed on the great Mackenzie River, this short fiction film recreates the amazing voyage of the man who gave his name to it. Following the path outlined in Mackenzie's journal, the film depicts his arduous journey by canoe all the way to the salt water of the Arctic Ocean - one of the great epics of northern exploration.

This film tells the story of the Red River settlement, now the city of Winnipeg, Manitoba. The pioneer venture of Thomas Douglas, Earl of Selkirk, to establish a colony brought opposition from the North West Company, the Hudson's Bay Company’s powerful rival. A fine cast of actors portrays the ensuing dispute.

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.

This short documentary brings to the screen a great seasonal event in the Québec spruce forest—the log drive. In lyrics set to a sprightly tune, ballad singer describes this annual spectacle. A vast aggregation of logs moves downstream on a river, spurred by dynamite and sharp-tipped cant hooks, tossed and twirled by the boots of leaping men.

This documentary is about the conservation ethic in Canada that led to the national parks systems around the world. Includes interviews with the then-Minister of Natural Resources, Jean Chretien.

An ecological study of plant and animal life on the Queen Elizabeth Islands in the Canadian Arctic. The film includes profiles of animals such as musk-oxen, lemmings, arctic hares and various forms of plant life.

This short film served as an invitation to the World's Fair that was held in Montreal in 1967. It was largely considered to be the most successful World's Fair of the 20th century with over 50 million visitors. The film presents impressions of the event and of Montreal at its liveliest and most exciting moment in history.

This feature documentary follows Le Théâtre de La Mouette, a travelling puppet theatre company comprised of a husband, his wife and their 3 teenage sons. The family has crossed Canada from east to west, and north to the Yukon, taking their amusing play (with a serious ecological message) to remote towns and villages. This film traces their 7th trip in 10 years, this time to the Maritimes and Newfoundland.