Villeneuve, peintre-barbier

The NFB filmed the table tennis competitions between teams of young Canadians and Chinese that took place in the People's Republic of China in the summer of 1973, the first time in twenty-five years that such filming was made possible. Shown are highlights of play at the China-Canada Friendship Meet, as well as some of the sightseeing taken in by the young Canadians--a visit, for example, to the Great Wall of China. Film without words.

This short documentary offers an account of the epic bicycle ride of seventy girls and one man from Montreal to Vancouver. Their ultimate goal is to raise money in order to fund their trip to Expo 70 in Osaka, Japan.

A film about Indigenous Peoples in many parts of Canada who are concerned about preserving what is left of their own culture and restoring what has been lost. It is the consciousness of tradition slipping away, with nothing equally satisfying or significant to take its place, that this film discovers wherever it goes. One of the speakers is Norval Morrisseau, an artist who, for a time, lived in Toronto but who returned to his reserve to devote his efforts to his own people; another is a business woman in Vancouver.

Edited from almost 100 km of film footage shot during the Games, this feature documentary is a breathtaking portrait of the 1976 Montreal Olympics. Much more than a simple record of the Games, the film approaches each event with the intention of revealing the athlete - whether winner or loser - as a unique individual.

A film featuring architect, sculptor, and musician Nobuo Kubota in a sound-sculpture performance. From within a cage-like structure filled with traditional musical instruments and sound-making devices fashioned from ordinary objects and toys, Kubota creates an aural/visual montage of musical notes and noises. Praised by music educators as a valuable tool for teaching creativity in sound exploration and musical innovation, the film reveals the infinite percussion possibilities of simple objects and presents a portrait of a versatile performer whose imagination has led him far beyond the confines of conventional music.

This feature-length documentary follows naturalist Bill Mason on his journey by canoe into the Ontario wilderness. The filmmaker and artist begins on Lake Superior, then explores winding and sometimes tortuous river waters to the meadowlands of the river's source. Along the way, Mason paints scenes that capture his attention and muses about his love of the canoe, his artwork and his own sense of the land.

Mason also uses the film as a commentary on the link between God and nature and the vast array of beautiful canvases God created for him to paint. Features breathtaking visuals and exciting whitewater footage, with a musical score by Bruce Cockburn.

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

In this film, On the Spot series host Fred Davis sets out to learn about the art of photography. Amateur, commercial, news and portrait photographers discuss the tricks of their trade when Davis pays them a visit: Louis Jacques does a photo story on pianist Oscar Peterson, while Ottawa's Yousuf Karsh explains how he clicks the shutter at famous people and, illustrating his point, snaps Prime Minister Louis St. Laurent’s portrait.

The NFB's 63rd Oscar®-nominated film.

Shui-Bo Wang's feature documentary is a visual autobiography of an artist who grew up in China during the historic upheavals of the ‘60s, '70s and '80s. A rich collage of original artwork and family and archival photos presents a personal perspective on the turbulent Cultural Revolution and the years that followed. For Shui-Bo Wang and others of his generation, Tiananmen Square was the central symbol of the new China – a society to be based on equality and cooperation. This animated documentary artfully traces Shui-Bo's roots and his own life journey as he struggles to sort through ideology and arrive at truth.

A veritable demolition artist, Alain saves what he can from the wrecking ball, salvaging disused and discarded items and magically infusing them with new life. The scrap yard is his treasure trove. Based only on his fertile imagination, eschewing any kind of preconceived plan, he creates wondrous objects and edifices. An old warehouse becomes his home. A mothballed shipyard serves as a gigantic movie set, further feeding his dreams... until his lease is up and the authorities insist the buildings must come down. But Alain is already off searching for another abandoned structure vast enough to accommodate his soaring vision.

In this revealing study of Norval Morrisseau, filmed as he works among the lakes and woodlands of his ancestors, we see a remarkable Indigenous artist who emerged from a life of obscurity in the North American bush to become one of Canada's most renowned painters. Morrisseau the man is much like his paintings: vital and passionate, torn between his Ojibway heritage and the influences of the white man's world. Jack Pollock, the Toronto art gallery owner who discovered Morrisseau's paintings in the early 1960s, comments on what makes them so unique.

This short documentary features a visual tour of legendary Canadian painter Tom Thomson's favourite natural landscapes. The film traces Thomson's career, which began in Toronto, where he worked as a commercial artist. Later, Thomson's weekend sketching trips in the country turned into longer journeys farther north, and he finally settled in northern Ontario's Algonquin Park. Thomson spent less than four years as an artist and was barely 40 when a canoe accident ended his life. Fellow artists Lawren Harris, A.Y. Jackson and Arthur Lismer pay tribute to this genius, who, in Jackson's words, "contributed more to Canadian painting than any other artist."