This documentary shares the stories of seven women from Newfoundland who married American soldiers. From the beginning of World War II to the end of the Cold War, Newfoundland housed some of the largest military bases outside of the U.S. As a result, as many as 40,000 Newfoundland women married American soldiers. Using a combination of interviews and old war footage, Seven Brides for Uncle Sam shows how some of the most important events in world history can serve as the backdrop to the timeless tales of romance, heartbreak and joy.
Idle hours at a summer cottage, when her husband is at work and the children busy at play, give a wife time to dream a little and reflect on her life and her marriage. Is it enough? What else might she have made of herself? But then her husband returns and she opts for things as they are. A relaxed drama that has much of the mood of a summer outdoors.
In 1992 a young Iranian student hanged himself on the outskirts of a small Ontario town. Having escaped the Ayatollah's regime and found a new home in Canada, he could not escape his past. In this film, Masoud Raouf documents the experiences of Iranian-Canadians - former political prisoners like himself - who were active in the Iranian democratic movement and continue to struggle with the past.
For more background information about this film, please visit the NFB.ca blog.
This drama tells the harrowing story of an immigrant family in the New World. On arrival in Canada, their hopes for a better life were dashed when immigration officials refused to grant entry to their daughter. During a routine medical examination it was found that Kasia had contracted an infectious eye disease. She is separated from her family and sent back to Europe alone.
A conservative Indo-Canadian family in small-town British Columbia must come to terms with a devastating secret: three sisters were sexually abused by an older relative beginning in their childhood years. After remaining silent for nearly two and a half decades, the sisters finally decide to come forward—not only to protect other young relatives, but to set an example for their daughters as well.
The setting for this drama is a logging community, focusing on a man who chooses the unfettered life and uncertain income of an itinerant bush worker, even though it means that his family lives poorly as a result. The film is a study of the effects on family life of isolation and deprivation. Features a wonderful performance from a young Margot Kidder.
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.
In July 1990, a dispute over a proposed golf course to be built on Kanien’kéhaka (Mohawk) lands in Oka, Quebec, set the stage for a historic confrontation that would grab international headlines and sear itself into the Canadian consciousness. Director Alanis Obomsawin—at times with a small crew, at times alone—spent 78 days behind Kanien’kéhaka lines filming the armed standoff between protestors, the Quebec police and the Canadian army. Released in 1993, this landmark documentary has been seen around the world, winning over a dozen international awards and making history at the Toronto International Film Festival, where it became the first documentary ever to win the Best Canadian Feature award. Jesse Wente, Director of Canada’s Indigenous Screen Office, has called it a “watershed film in the history of First Peoples cinema.”
This feature-length film tells the story of the passion between Marie de l’Incarnation, a mid-seventeenth-century nun and God, her "divine spouse." Fusing documentary and acting by Marie Tifo, whom we follow as she rehearses for this demanding role, the film paints an astonishing portrait of this mystic who abandoned her son and left France to build a convent in Canada, where she became the first female writer in New France.
At the start of the new millennium, relations between men and women are in turmoil. Traditional marriage is challenged on all fronts. Long-held notions about gender, commitment and courtship have been cast aside. And 'marriageable' people are staying single in record numbers.
Is this an historical blip or a fundamental change in society? Do men and women even need each other anymore? Women and Men Unglued dares to ask these questions.
This provocative documentary takes an uncensored look at single, urban Gen-Xers living on the edge of this social change. Operating in a free-for-all zone where old mating rules don't apply and new ones don't exist, these young urbanites struggle to find intimacy amid chaos.
Against this backdrop, leading experts like Barbara Dafoe Whitehead and Bert Archer take a fresh look at how relations between the sexes are evolving.
This short documentary focuses on Newfoundland's role in WWII. Due to its geographical position, Newfoundland became a central point of activity during the war, housing military air bases and becoming the link between the Allied forces and Europe. In stark contrast with the Depression in the 1930s, this film highlights Newfoundland's opportunities for economic growth during, and after, the war. Part of the Canada Carries On series.
This feature film by Gilles Carle is a classic of French-Canadian cinema. During the year's worst storm, a humble snow-plow operator is forced to perform miracles, from clearing the streets to making his wife happy. Not to mention the multitude of errands in between. But Léopold is a happy-go-lucky kind of guy, and things usually tend to go his way. Will his good fortune continue on this snowy Christmas Eve in Montreal?
Ages 15 to 17
Family Studies/Home Economics - Feminism
Family Studies/Home Economics - Relationships
Geography - Territory: Regional
History and Citizenship Education - Culture and Currents of Thought (1500-present)
Create timeline of events in Canada confederation up to WW2, focusing on military / political events; highlight Newfoundland’s status as a nation at the time the film began. Why was Newfoundland compared to Gibraltar in the film? Why were the girls of Newfoundland so attracted to US soldiers? Why were they considered “less than desirable” by military officials? Identify reasons why so many of the marriages ended; what can be learned from the women’s stories?