Sur la corde raide

High Wire examines the reasons that Canada declined to take part in the 2003 US-led military mission in Iraq, shining a spotlight on the diplomatic tug of war that took place behind the scenes with our neighbours to the south, who have often adopted an interventionist foreign policy to serve their own economic and geopolitical interests. Canada’s historic refusal could have had disastrous consequences, but a number of key players and other analysts remind us of the terrible price we pay when diplomacy fails.

In this feature documentary, Oscar®-nominated filmmaker Shuibo Wang (Sunrise Over Tiananmen Square) aims his camera at the astonishing story of 21 American soldiers who opted to stay in China after the Korean War ended in 1954. Back home in the United States, McCarthyism was at its height and many Americans believed these men were brainwashed by Chinese communists. But what really happened? Using never-before-seen footage from the Chinese camps and interviews with former PoWs and their families, They Chose China tells the fascinating stories of these forgotten American dissidents.

This short newsreel highlights the battles faced by both Axis and Ally powers over the minds of the world through propaganda and information. Part of the World in Action series, this film includes footage of Winston Churchill, Benito Mussolini, and Adolf Hitler.

This short film looks at the plans made at Dumbarton Oaks in 1945 for a renewed international organization devoted to world peace - the United Nations.

In this documentary, Paul Cowan delivers unprecedented access to the United Nations Department of Peacekeeping, and the determined and often desperate manoeuvres to avert another Rwandan disaster, this time in the Democratic Republic of Congo (the DRC). The film cuts back and forth between the United Nations headquarters in New York and events on the ground in the DRC. We are with the peacekeepers in the 'Crisis Room' as they balance the risk of loss of life on the ground with the enormous sums of money required from uncertain donor countries. We are with UN troops as the northeast Congo erupts and the future of the DRC, if not all of central Africa, hangs in the balance. As Secretary General Kofi Annan tells the General Assembly at the conclusion of The Peacekeepers: "History is a harsh judge. The world will not forgive us if we do nothing." Whether the world's peacekeeper did enough remains to be seen.

Hibakusha is the Japanese word for the survivors of the American bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This powerful and moving documentary focuses on a few of the eighty hibakusha who journeyed from Japan to New York in June, 1982, to take part in peace demonstrations held to coincide with the Second United Nations Special Session on Disarmament. They came to urge the nations of the world to prevent nuclear war. Instead of concentrating on the physical suffering of the victims, the film reveals the mental anguish of the hibakusha, who are still haunted by nightmares.

This documentary marks the 100th anniversary of the Royal 22e Régiment, the only French-speaking Canadian battalion to fight in the First World War. Widely known by its colloquial name, “The Van Doos”, the battalion served with distinction on several fronts, including both world wars, the Korean War, and in numerous U.N. peacekeeping operations. This film offers a moving tribute to both the living veterans and the lost soldiers of the Van Doos. Their personal stories and narratives bring a little-known page of our history books to life. This vibrant elegy features a moving score by Claude Naubert performed live by the regimental formation La Musique du Royal 22e Régiment.

A tribute to the combatants in the First World War, this film traces the conflict through the war diary and private letters of five Canadian soldiers and a nurse. Hearing them, the listener detects between the lines an unspoken horror censored by war and propriety.

The film mingles war footage, historical photos and readings of excerpts from the diary and letters. The directorial talent of Claude Guilmain breathes life into these 90-year-old documents and accompanying archival images so that we experience the human face and heart of the conflict.

For the educational sector, five documentary vignettes have been drawn from the film: Nurses at the Front, The Officer's Role, The Life of the Soldier, Faith and Hope and The Trenches, each with further information on its particular subject.

This short film, part of The World in Action series, looks at Soviet foreign policy from 1917 through World War II. It considers the historical and political imperatives and the value of the Soviet Union as an ally.

The Van Doos in Afghanistan is a documentary that propels you directly into the heart of the action among the soldiers serving with the Royal 22e Régiment. In this clip, the soldiers gather for a minute of silence in memory of Corporal Yannick Scherrer, their comrade-in-arms. His coffin is carried onto the plane that will fly him home to his final resting place.

This feature-length film, based on Margaret MacMillan's acclaimed book of the same name, takes us inside the most ambitious peace talks in history. Revisiting the event with a vivid sense of narrative, the film evokes a pivotal moment when peace seemed possible, and reflects on the hard-learned lessons of history.