Postcards from Canada

This animated film tells the story of a young Japanese girl's relationship with her grandfather, a postmaster and amateur geologist. When the neighboring Mount Usu erupts during World War II, he records its activity. As he witnesses the birth of a new mountain named Showa Shinzan, he transcends the misery and folly of war that surrounds them and teaches his granddaughter a valuable lesson about life. Evoking the tradition of Bunraku puppetry, this animated film is based on actual events.

Go head-to-head with an icebreaker. Plunge down a twisting mountain gorge. Soar through the clouds in the nosecone of a jet, then speed along with a dog team as it races across a frozen Arctic lake. A sweeping, moving tribute to Canada's stunning geography and rich cultural heritage, Momentum leaps off your screen--and touches your heart. Filmed entirely in IMAX, this film wowed audiences from around the world when it premiered at Expo 92 in Seville, Spain, the greatest world's fair of the last quarter century.

The NFB's 20th Oscar®-nominated film.

This short documentary offers a narrated tour—from a helicopter—of the ten Canadian provinces in 1966. The result is a big, beautiful and engrossing bird's-eye portrait of the country. Nothing here is quite the same as seen before, even Niagara Falls. Canadians will be thrilled by this panoramic view of familiar territory. This film was produced for international distribution on the occasion of the Canadian centennial.

Filmed for the most part from a low-flying aircraft, this documentary short presents a breathtaking view of Canada from coast to coast. Showing the varied terrain, from craggy coast to towering glacier, the film illustrates Canada’s pristine wilderness as well as today's industrial and urban realities.

Canada the Land was specially commissioned for the Canada Pavilion at the Osaka World Fair in 1970.

The visit to the Canadian Pavilion at Expo 67 highlights Canada's natural resources and advances in technology and science.

This film presents a breath-taking view of Canada from coast to coast. Besides showing the varied terrain, from craggy coast to towering glacier, the film illustrates something of the development of the land from its virgin state to today's intense and complex industrial exploitation. Filmed for the most part from a low-flying aircraft, there is evidence of space everywhere: in the caribou streaming across the snowy tundra, in the serried ranges of the Pacific mountains, in the distant horizons of lakes and seas, and in the spacious grain fields of the prairies. Equal to the grandiose natural scenes are the projects of Canadian industry, such as Quebec's great Manicouagan power dam, and the endless ribbon of the Trans-Canada Highway. This view of the land is surprising in its diversity.

A visit to the "Indians of Canada" pavilion at Expo 67, Montréal. Inside there are Indigenous artifacts, but even more arresting are the printed placards that tell the story of the Indigenous peoples in North America, written without rancor but recalling what their contact with European settlers has cost in freedom of movement, in loss of land, and in loss of health of body and spirit.

A jetliner spans the miles, sheering through clouds to open sky and scenic vistas of the provinces below. Glimpses of town and country, of people of many ethnic origins, of a resourceful and industrious nation--impressions it would take days and weeks to gather at first hand--are brought to you in this vivid 1800-kilometer panorama.

The camera follows the Trans-Canada Highway from east to west, revealing the people, the resources and the geography of Canada. Included are some of the engineering feats accomplished in the building of the highway.

This documentary from the Shining Mountains series explores the discovery of the Rockies by retracing the footsteps of its earliest European visitors. At first nothing more than an obstacle to fur trading, the Rockies became, with the arrival of the first CPR train, an all-too accessible Shangri-La, a playground for Easterners armed with easels, cameras and climbing gear. Here, the filmmaker joins modern-day adventurers and historians to relive these early explorations. It's a journey by dog team, locomotive, canoe and climbing party to the roof of the Canadian Rockies. From there, one can almost see forever, and that's the problem. The future is cause for concern.

This short film illustrates the Canadian national anthem through the use of contemporary and archival footage. A stunning rendition of the anthem is performed by a 57-piece orchestra, and the film features English subtitles with the anthem’s complete lyrics.