Reportages nº 94

This documentary examines the media's coverage of the federal election of May 1979. Filmed over a 3-week period, it takes a fascinating look at journalists in action and the politicians who attempt to manipulate the media.

This feature film made during an exceptionally feverish period of popular revolt that saw the coming together of Quebec’s 3 main unions (CSN, FTQ, CEQ) is a cinematic tract by socially engaged filmmaker Gilles Groulx. Propped against the backdrop of the 1970 October Crisis, the film is a frontal assault denouncing a “consumer society” viewed as the ultimate embodiment of evil.

This documentary from 1945 explains The Veteran's Land Act, which provided for low-cost loans to veterans who wished to purchase properties and re-establish themselves in Canada after the war. The loans were for properties ranging from town lots to full-scale farms. The Act also provided aid in purchasing farm machinery, fishing boats, building materials and livestock. Produced by the NFB for the Canadian Department of Veterans Affairs.

From the Canada Carries On series, this documentary emphasizes the importance of conservation and rationing, and the increased industrial production, during World War II. It suggests that "tomorrow's world" will be more prosperous and better planned because of the war efforts.

All across Canada, at every level, national life is being enriched and strengthened by the talents and skills, as diverse as the countries from which they come, which are being poured into their adopted land by immigrants from the British Isles and Europe. This film travels to many places from coast to coast to present a visual inventory of the many ways in which Canada's expansion is being helped by the newcomers, who see fresh opportunities to develop existing resources--both economically and culturally--and who also arrive as the purveyors of specialized knowledge from abroad.

In Part 1 of this 3-part documentary series, director Donald Brittain chronicles the early years of Pierre Elliott Trudeau and René Lévesque. From their university days in the 1950s to 1967 when Lévesque left the Liberal Party and Trudeau became the federal Minister of Justice, Brittain attempts to get at the heart of what makes these men so fascinating.

In October 1970, members of the Front de libération du Québec kidnapped minister Pierre Laporte, unleashing an unprecedented crisis in Quebec. Fifty years later, Félix Rose tries to understand what led his father and uncle to commit these acts.

With the distance between Canada and Russia, China and India cut by high-speed planes, new international links are being forged. In this Pacific world, British Columbia is a unit of growing importance. In a brief survey of the province, this film covers the people, natural resources, industries, and some of the social problems of British Columbia - specifically the imprisonment of Japanese citizens and brief references to the lives of Chinese and Indian migrants. Located on the Pacific Coast, it is the jumping-off place for planes bound for East Asia, and a vital link between the rest of Canada and her neighbours across the Pacific.

This animated short by Norman McLaren serves as a wartime savings campaign. Symbolic figures, drawn directly on 35mm film stock, move and dance against a simple painted background. The score is "Pinetop's Boogie Woogie," by Albert Ammons.

This animated short by Norman McLaren is a publicity message for a war bond campaign. Symbols, a stick man and lettering are drawn directly on 35mm film stock and synchronized with a brass band rendition of Sousa's march "The Thunderer."

Through the coming of age of a twenty-year-old man, this film symbolizes the political coming of age of the people of Québec. In French with English subtitles.

Soundtrack album, John's Coltrane's Blue World, available from Impulse! / Universal Music Enterprises.