Shooting Stars

This feature documentary uses animation, archival stills and live-action footage to detail the history of women's participation in the largely male-dominated world of baseball and softball. Zany and affectionate, it features 7-year-olds learning the rules and skills of the game and 50-year-olds hitting home runs, from the early days of the Bloomer Girls to the heyday of the Colorado Silver Bullets.

For more background information on this film, please visit the NFB.ca blog.

This feature documentary follows one of the greatest Canadian baseball players of all time, Ferguson Jenkins, through the 1972-1973 season. From the hope and innocence of spring training to the dog days of an August slump, the camera gets up close and personal at the home plate and records the intimate chatter on the mound, in the dugout and in the locker room. It provides a glimpse into the rewards and pressures of sports stardom and the easy camaraderie of the quintessential summer sport.

This short documentary from the On the Spot series - “National Film Board’s up-to-the-minute report of what’s happening somewhere in Canada” – invites us to visit the Edmonton Eskimos football team on their home ground. Host Fred Davis introduce us to some of the team’s key players and interviews its 28-year-old coach, Darrell Royal, a firm believer in the use of moving pictures in the coaching of modern football.

Five women, all of them black belts in karate, are examples of how this ancient martial art can transform lives. They demonstrate how it can generate a whole range of physical, psychological and spiritual benefits. To these women, karate means much more than self-defence; its lessons of discipline and harmony can be applied to situations on the street or in the boardroom.

This documentary by director Paul Cowan is about four athletes and a team that competed in the 1976 Olympics. They had trained courageously to be among those who would mount the podium to receive a medal. None of them did, but was it worth the effort? I'll Go Again answers the question.

This short film highlights how the sport of lacrosse, which has changed little over time, is regaining popularity. Watch how the game is played, how lacrosse sticks are made by Mohawks at a factory in Cornwall, and how the Canadian Lacrosse Association helps instruct teams.

A member of the Soviet Union's women's gymnastic team at the 1976 Olympic Games, Nelli Kim was seventeen when she won two gold medals for her superb performance on the horse vault and for the floor exercises. The slow-motion camera highlights the best moments of her performance. It also shows the person behind the athlete, and the nervousness that is generated by the presence of a new star, Nadia Comeneci of Romania.

This documentary short shines a light on British Columbia’s soccer culture. With a special focus on the successful Vancouver Italia team, the film celebrates the province’s most popular sport.

In this short documentary, award-winning filmmaker Annie Frazier Henry follows an elite handful of Indigenous athletes from British Columbia for two years as they make their way to the 2002 North American Indigenous Games in Winnipeg. Over 6,000 young sportsmen and women from across Canada and the US compete in the games, and this film serves as a tribute to their hard work, dedication, and achievements.

This short documentary tells the story of Doug Rogers, a young Canadian athlete who developed a talent for judo that led him into competition for the world championship at the Tokyo Olympics and subsequent competition at the Pan-American Games. The film shows the intensive judo training Rogers took at a Tokyo college, as well as glimpses of his life in Japan.

This feature-length Oscar®-nominated documentary chronicles the efforts of 8 athletes, both in their home countries before the August 1978 Commonwealth Games and during competition itself. The film was the official film of the 11th Commonwealth Games, held in Edmonton, Canada.