Les Ludions

This short film pays tribute to Acadian actress Viola Léger. One of the brightest stars in Canada’s artistic firmament, Léger is best known for her role as La Sagouine in the play of the same name by Acadian writer Antonine Maillet. She has performed it more than 2,500 times, winning rave reviews for her authentic and engaging portrayal. In this film, an in-depth interview combined with archival photos and videos captures the passion and vitality of a woman who, at the venerable age of 82, is ever willing to take on the roles still being offered to her.

Produced by the NFB in co-operation with the National Arts Centre and the Governor General's Performing Arts Awards Foundation on the occasion of the 2013 Governor General's Performing Arts Awards.

This short follows grand dame of the theatre Diana Leblanc as she prepares for a role in The Dybbuk (Soulpepper Theatre Company) and gets ready to direct an opera (Madame Butterfly). The film weaves together archival footage, photographs, and animation depicting Leblanc as a young ballerina, offering an intimate reflection on her life’s passions, challenges, and lessons.

Produced by the NFB in co-operation with the National Arts Centre and the Governor General's Performing Arts Awards Foundation on the occasion of the 2015 Governor General's Performing Arts Awards.

This short documentary profiles Canadian actor Christopher Plummer of the Shakespearean Theater, best known as The Sound of Music’s Captain von Trapp. In his dressing room, Plummer dons his make-up and prepares to enter stage as Cyrano de Bergerac.

Here is what happened in a Toronto classroom when teachers occupied the children's desks and children became the teachers. The film grew out of another, Mrs. Ryan's Drama Class, where young children found their way into creative drama. There is food for thought in this impromptu reversal of roles.

The Perspective camera follows some Canadian students as they pursue acting careers by studying at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, England.

This feature film documents the rape and eventual suicide of Suzanne, a nurse whose physical and emotional health deteriorates beyond repair as a result of the violence inflicted on her. Images of ritual and mass rape reinforce the horror of this act of domination. In this docudrama drawn from case histories, the filmmaker explores social attitudes that cause women to feel guilty for being raped. It touches upon the physical, emotional, spiritual and legal aspects of this crime.

Can a woman fully achieve self-realization while at the same time giving herself to the role of wife and mother? This is one question raised in this film documentary. Introspective, partly biographical, the film delves into the emotions of joy, anticipation and anxiety that a young mother experiences during the last several weeks before the birth of her second child. There is some footage from Czechoslovakia concerning maternity: a natural childbirth in a hospital delivery room and state nursery care for the children of working mothers.

Filmmaker Anne Claire Poirier captures the most terrible tragedy a mother can imagine – her own daughter's addiction, prostitution, and eventual murder. Determined to use her talent as a filmmaker to find the strength and courage needed to go on, Poirier created a cinematic tour-de-force that delves into the lives of street people. She unearths her daughter's past in order to better understand why she, and other young people, risk their lives for the drugs they believe will set them free.

Structured as a love letter, this feature film is an impressionistic history of the women of Québec down through the ages: the Indigenous woman, the fille du Roy, the nun, the settler's wife, the soldier's wife, and, finally, today's woman.

This documentary invites you to join acclaimed playwright David Fennario for a performance of his funny and touching one-man play Banana Boots.

The film recounts Fennario’s memories of Montreal’s Verdun and Point Saint-Charles districts, follows him on a journey to Belfast for the Irish premiere of his hit play Balconville, and details his move from major theatrical performances to community theatre, where he sought to "create theatre that can be used to fight back."

This documentary short is a cinematic recording of Tales from a Prairie Drifter, a stage comedy about the North-West Resistance during the opening of the Canadian West. Highlighting the roles of Louis Riel, the Resistance leader, prime minister Sir John A. Macdonald and General Middleton, who was sent to quell the uprising, the play defines the First nations and Métis cause more succinctly than many history books. Here, the play is performed by the Regina Globe Theatre before an Indigineous audience of First Nations and Métis, whose reactions are recorded.