The Snow War

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.

This film shows the scientific study of fires set to buildings in Aultsville, Ontario, a town evacuated for flooding by the St. Lawrence Seaway. Scientists at Canada's National Research Council devised instruments for recording the progress of a fire in all its stages, to help the country's fire fighters lessen fire's tragic toll.

This film provides a lively introduction to the professional and personal lives of three female engineers--just a few of the growing number of women who are opting for "non-traditional" jobs. Their enthusiasm for and commitment to their work makes them convincing role models for high-school girls who might be considering engineering as a career possibility. As well, the film is effective in fostering positive attitudes towards women working in the traditionally male professions of science and technology. Support material available.

This is a film showing the scientific study made of fires set to doomed buildings in Aultsville, Ontario, a town evacuated for flooding by the St. Lawrence Seaway. Scientists from Canada's National Research Council devised instruments for recording the progress of a fire in all its stages. With them, they probed the terrible inferno of burning buildings, making observations that may help the country's firefighters to lessen the tragic toll of life and property reported annually.

October, November ... rough driving days ahead. Winter Driving: Keep Your Cool presents helpful information on how to cope with winter-driving conditions. Starting with the assumption that people are familiar with such general safe-driving habits as fastening seatbelts and maintaining their cars in good working order, a series of winter-driving dos and don'ts clearly put the driver on the right track.

Canadian universities made many contributions to the war effort through research and applications in many disciplines including engineering, medicine, psychiatry, chemistry, agriculture and sociology. Many of these developments were also envisioned as having important peacetime applications.

Best known as the amicable Director of the McLuhan Program in Culture and Technology at the University of Toronto, Derrick de Kerckhove is at the core of a world think-tank dedicated to probing the rapid changes of our global village. The documentary Zulu Time follows this "wired man" in his globe-trotting career as media prophet and probes into some of the most fascinating questions confronting us in our new electronic galaxy. As the spiritual inheritor of McLuhan's thought, de Kerckhove lives in perpetual oscillation between himself and his double, Marshall McLuhan, with whom he has become publicly identified and virtually assimilated.

An animated film about the appropriateness of new technology and its effects on people. The case in point revolves around a bank whose human tellers find themselves unemployed when they are replaced by electronic tellers. A mild-mannered client of the bank is overwhelmed and humiliated by his first encounter with the dispassionate computer. Conventional cel animation is contrasted with computer-generated images to heighten the satire in this look at the problems that can arise when technology ignores human needs.

Shark Hunt: Canadian Fisheries Patrol in the Pacific brings in a huge basking shark. Stringing a Line: A power line is strung by helicopter over mountains in Banff National Park. Arctic Town: Inuvik, a new town built on stilts inside the Arctic Circle.

An industrial accident-prevention film illustrating that an accident usually has several causes. A situation is portrayed in a large machine shop, where a series of unsafe acts, combined with unsafe conditions, led to an accident in which a man's arm was caught in an unguarded machine. A film to stimulate discussion among managers, supervisors and safety professionals, as well as for all industrial employees.

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?