Ski in the Valley of the Saints

This short film retraces the life of Herman Smith Johannsen – the man who introduced the sport of cross-country skiing to Canadians. From past to present, his life story is portrayed through pictures from sports newsreels, Norwegian archives and his family album. The film catches up with him at both the Canadian Ski Marathon, where he is the honoured guest, and on a return trip to his native Norway.

In this sports short, Bill Stern, an American sportscaster, describes Laurentian sporting events. First to perform is Pete Curran, a professional figure skater and one-time partner of Barbara Ann Scott. For those who can hang on to the traces, the Scandinavian sport of skijoring, in which a person on skis is pulled along by a horse or vehicle, provides fun and excitement. A slow-motion camera follows Alex Foster as he demonstrates his skill. The film ends with an exhibition of skiing.

In this short vignette, skier Kathy Kreiner prepares for and participates in her Olympic gold-medal race at Innsbruck.

Filmmaker Giles Walker takes an informal look at how our best skiers work and live. Filmed in 1976, this short movie follows the Canadian ski team on a tight schedule in Chile and Argentina. With 2 ½ tons of equipment, speeds of up to 140 km/h, gruelling workouts and a dramatic theft, it's safe to say that downhill racing is not for the faint of heart.

This documentary records the extraordinary determination of Jungle Jim Hunter to be the best ski racer in the world. We witness his gruelling exercise routines, pre-race tensions, trials and deep religious faith of this dedicated athlete.

This short film is a condensed version of our feature documentary Mighty Jerome, made especially for elementary and middle-school classes. Canadian athlete Harry Jerome overcame racism to reach the height of track-and-field success. When an injury ended his career, Jerome continued training and went on to achieve one of the greatest comebacks in sports history.

An amusing view of the machine that has taken the country by winter storm: the snowmobile, revving, raring, ready to go. What the motorboat was to the summer lake, this motorized sled now is to the snow-covered fields. This film shows it all--the pull of this sit-down sport, the eagerness of the trade to keep it booming, the daring rivalry of the racing crowd, and the bemused pleasure of the family outing.

With the opening of its winter carnival, Ste-Agathe-des-Monts in Québec's Laurentian mountains becomes the centre for a variety of competitive winter sports. Parades and floats take over the streets of Ste-Agathe and the mayor gives the signal for the carnival to commence. It begins with ice skating for the children, followed by horse-drawn sled and sulky races, a three day International Dog Sled Race and downhill ski races.

The Games included many sports seen in Olympic competition, plus others--for example, pirautaqturniq, the Inuit skill of hitting an object with a ten meter-long sled dog whip. This film captures the all-out participation in the week-long events hosted by Whitehorse, capital of the Yukon, with competitors from all over the Arctic including Alaska, and with observers from the Soviet Union.

A tongue-in-cheek archival film documenting a day in the life of a veteran horse-drawn carriage driver. Though the tourists that flock to the historic avenues of the Old City have changed considerably, the Old World charm of Québec City is timeless.

This short documentary records the celebration and ritual surrounding a snowshoe competition in Sherbrooke in the late 1950s. The film marked the beginning of a new approach to reality in documentary and prefigures the trademark style of the NFB's newly formed French Unit. Today, Les raquetteurs is considered a precursor to the birth of direct cinema. In French with English subtitles.