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Ethical Values (150)

  1. Available in English Options
5 years old
18 years old
  • As Usual
    As Usual
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    Raymond Brousseau 1974 13 min
    Imagine a world where everything moves backwards. That's what happens in this short experimental film without words. A man wakes up to the sound of his alarm clock and begins his day, only to find that everything is running in reverse--his electric shaver, the morning paper. Out in the street, people and cars are backing away. He alone of all the crowd seems to move forward normally. The effect on him and the viewers verges on the bizarre.
  • The Amendment
    The Amendment
    Kevin Papatie 2007 4 min
    In the Kitcisakik community, the Algonquin language is dying out, just four generations after the federal government's assimilation policy came into effect.

    Since 2004, Wapikoni Mobile has been giving Indigenous youth the opportunity to speak out using video and music.
  • Assholes - A Theory
    Assholes - A Theory
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    John Walker 2019 1 h 20 min
    Some grapple with the challenge of treating other human beings decently. Others are just… assholes, claims Professor Aaron James in his New York Times bestselling book, Assholes: A Theory. This intellectually provocative film takes a playful approach to uncovering why asshole behaviour is on the rise in the workplace, in government, and at home.
  • Beyond December 6
    Beyond December 6
    Catherine Fol 1991 28 min
    One year after the tragedy that took the lives of fourteen female students, Montreal’s École Polytechnique has returned to something resembling normalcy. Nathalie Provost is a survivor of the shooting at the engineering school. Today, with friends, she opens up. About the tragedy, about feminism. About racism and sexism. About the fact that society has difficulty accepting difference. And, above all, about life, which must go on beyond December 6.
  • Blake
    Blake
    Bill Mason 1969 19 min
    Director Bill Mason's short film focuses on his friend and fellow filmmaker, Blake James. In his never-ending quest for freedom, Blake pilots his own plane. This film is Mason's view of his friend as a "hobo of the skies," but it is also an adventure that beckons the viewer to come along for the ride.
  • Bravery in the Field
    Bravery in the Field
    Giles Walker 1979 28 min
    This dramatic film introduces us to Tommy, a World War II veteran who rooms alone, waiting for his pension cheque to arrive, passing the time in the evenings with his cronies in the Legion Hall. Lennie can claim only a third of Tommy's years, but he prowls the same area of town, and the two have more in common than either of them realizes. Both their lives lack a sense of place and purpose. The story occurs early in November and leads up to an event that provides one of Tommy's few remaining moments of glory, the annual veterans' Remembrance Day parade.
  • The Bear and the Mouse
    The Bear and the Mouse
    F.W. Remmler  &  Ingmar Remmler 1966 7 min
    A variation on a fable by Aesop ("The Lion and the Mouse") in which a mouse aids a mighty lion who had once spared his life. This children's film casts real animals – with a big brown bear in the role of the lion, and proves that little friends can prove to be great friends indeed.
  • Blue Like a Gunshot
    Blue Like a Gunshot
    Masoud Raouf 2003 5 min
    Discover a short, animated film that explores the conflict between nature, civilization, and the absurd vanity of human warfare. With its interplay of shadow and light, this film is sure to sweep you away.
  • Boys, Toys and the Big Blue Marble
    Boys, Toys and the Big Blue Marble
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    Marquise Lepage 2007 52 min
    Boys living in poverty across the world tell us of their lives, amusements and sometimes their hopes. Boys, Toys and the Big Blue Marble appraises childhoods destroyed by slavery, criminality, war, sexual exploitation and human stupidity.
  • Buying Sex
    Buying Sex
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    Teresa MacInnes  &  Kent Nason 2013 1 h 15 min
    This feature documentary explores the state of prostitution laws in Canada. It captures the complexity of the issue by listening to the frequently conflicting voices of sex workers, policy-makers, lawyers, and even the male buyers who make their argument for why prostitution is good for society. Warning: This film deals with mature subject matter. Viewer discretion is advised.

    Following the release of Buying Sex, Professor Alan Young, counsel for the applicants in Bedford v. Canada and a participant in the film, contacted the NFB to complain that the film provides an incomplete and inaccurate account of the case. The NFB acknowledges that the constitutional challenge is not the focus of the film. Rather, the aim of the film is to examine the current controversy in Canada around the decriminalization of prostitution, of which the Bedford case is one aspect. The goal is to create a film which encourages Canadians to engage in an informed debate about sex work from a national and international perspective. The NFB believes the film achieves this purpose. In the spirit of furthering an informed debate on these issues, including the constitutional challenge, and in response to Prof. Young's concerns, the NFB provides below links to the legal briefs filed by the parties before the Supreme Court of Canada as well as links to the judgments of all three Canadian Courts. The third judgment, from the Supreme Court of Canada, was released in December 2013, following the completion of the film. The Supreme Court struck down as unconstitutional the three prostitution related laws challenged by Prof. Young, but suspended its judgment for one year to allow Parliament to consider whether to enact new laws, thus ensuring that the debate surrounding the decriminalization of prostitution will continue in Canada for some time.
  • Balakrishna
    Balakrishna
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    Colin MacKenzie  &  Aparna Kapur 2019 15 min
    When an extraordinary new resident – Balakrishna, an Indian elephant – arrived in the town of East River, Nova Scotia, in 1967, no one was more in awe of the creature than young Winton Cook, who became inseparable from his mammoth new friend. Using painterly animation, photographs and home-movie treasures, Balakrishna transmits the wistfulness of childhood memories, while evoking themes of friendship and loss, and issues of immigration and elephant conservation.
  • Black and White in South Africa
    Black and White in South Africa
    John Howe  &  Ronald Dick 1957 29 min
    This 1957 documentary short offers an analysis of South Africa's acute race problem, an issue that causes dissension not only within its borders but within the Commonwealth and beyond. In South Africa, a country of 14 million people, 4 out of 5 people are black. The film gives a dispassionate appraisal of the motivations behind the policy of apartheid and of whether the practice of segregation provides a satisfactory, long-term solution.
  • The Brainwashers
    The Brainwashers
    Patrick Bouchard 2002 12 min
    In this animated short, two chimney sweepers clear all the memories from their victim's brain in a quest to determine what goes on in a man's head. A chilling film filled with fearsome puppets inhabiting a world of strange objects.
  • Canada at War, Part 13: The Clouded Dawn
    Canada at War, Part 13: The Clouded Dawn
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    1962 27 min
    August 1945 - 1946. Japan surrenders. World War II is over, but the scars are deep. Canadian prisoners are released from Japanese war camps. In Canada, as elsewhere, the monumental task of rehabilitation begins. In Ottawa the Gouzenko case shocks the nation. The trials at Nürenberg begin. The United Nations is formed. Canada, now a much stronger, independent nation, enters the Cold War.
  • A Child Unlike Any Other
    A Child Unlike Any Other
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    Anna Barczewska 2005 11 min
    In this short documentary about autism, director Anna Barczewska examines the complex challenge of raising autistic children. Through the voice of Jan's devoted mother and the comments of specialists, the film offers an introduction to this neurological disorder that reduces one’s ability to communicate with the outside world.
  • "CONTACT" Requiem for a Word
    "CONTACT" Requiem for a Word
    Olivier D. Asselin 2020 7 min
    An investigation into how language is changing in the age of COVID-19. The complete upheaval of social relationships today is leading to the reinterpretation of certain terms, which have suddenly taken on a fatal connotation. This film is a funeral mass in memory of the word “contact.”
  • Christopher, Please Clean Up Your Room!
    Christopher, Please Clean Up Your Room!
    Vincent Gauthier 2001 6 min
    This short animated film stars Christopher, a terrific kid with one major problem… he's messy! His shoes smell funky, his fish bowl stinks, and even the cockroaches can't stand it. In the chaos of Christopher's room, his fish rise up from their scummy bowl in protest. They enlist the help of a fastidious cockroach. Together, the fish and the roaches hatch a plan that will change Christopher's life and his cleaning habits forever.

    Part of the Talespinners collection, which uses vibrant animation to bring popular children’s stories from a wide range of cultural communities to the screen.
  • The Children of Refus Global
    The Children of Refus Global
    Manon Barbeau 1998 1 h 14 min
    In 1948, Paul-Émile Borduas' Refus global manifesto proclaimed the end of the "reign of fear" embodied by the Duplessis regime. Fifty years later, all the history books mention this document which laid the foundations of modern Quebec. Daughter of one of the signatories, filmmaker Manon Barbeau takes a fresh look at this period. She went to meet the sons and daughters of Barbeau, Borduas, Mousseau and Riopelle, "children of Refus global" who, like her, suffered the consequences of their parents' revolutionary gesture. None of them emerged unscathed from a childhood made up of worries and abandonment, but also of a richness that only art can bring. Especially when it appears to us, as it does here, in the light of emotion.
  • The Egg
    The Egg
    Jean-François Pouliot  &  Robert Bélisle 1979 1 min
    In this animated short from the Canada Vignette series, learn how societies in evolution are often in danger of self-destruction.
  • A Chairy Tale
    A Chairy Tale
    Norman McLaren  &  Claude Jutra 1957 9 min
    In this short film, a chair, animated by Evelyn Lambart, refuses to be sat upon, forcing a young man to perform a sort of dance with the chair. The musical accompaniment is by Ravi Shankar and Chatur Lal. This virtuoso film is the result of a collaboration between Norman McLaren and Claude Jutra.
  • Doctors with Heart
    Doctors with Heart
    Tahani Rached 1994 1 h 52 min
    Tahani Rached’s powerful documentary enters the doors of an AIDS clinic in Montreal. We meet a group of dedicated doctors struggling to provide health care to their patients. This 1994 film explores legal and ethical problems surrounding HIV/AIDS and the struggle against fear, rumours and prejudice. It is still relevant today. In French with English subtitles.
  • Discussions in Bioethics: Happy Birthday
    Discussions in Bioethics: Happy Birthday
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    Jefferson Lewis 1985 12 min
    One of a series of short, open-ended dramas designed to stimulate discussion of values and ethics in relation to modern medical technology. A young couple's marriage is threatened over a decision as to whether the husband should accept a job researching poison gas for military purposes. The wife is adamantly opposed. Regardless of their decision, someone will take the job. Should one morally accept responsibility for the consequences?
  • The Dark Side of the White Lady
    The Dark Side of the White Lady
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    Patricio Henríquez 2006 52 min
    In this feature-length documentary, filmmaker Patricio Henriquez seeks to untangle the web of lies surrounding the Chilean navy's training vessel, the Esmeralda. Heralded as a symbol of national pride, a dark secret lies behind the facade of the ship the Chileans call The White Lady: Following the 1973 coup d'état, it was used as a floating prison. Thirty years later, the victims of the dictatorship are demanding justice. The Dark Side of the White Lady is a fascinating journey to uncover the truth.
  • Dehors novembre
    Dehors novembre
    Patrick Bouchard 2005 6 min
    This animated short evokes the tragic death of Dédé Fortin, frontman, and vocalist of the Québécois band Les Colocs. To the soundtrack of “Dehors novembre,” one of the band’s songs, animator Patrick Bouchard weaves of dark tale of death and ruin, as they unfold in the dark of night, in November, the Month of the Dead. Not for children.
  • Discussions in Bioethics: Who Should Decide?
    Discussions in Bioethics: Who Should Decide?
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    Beverly Shaffer 1985 14 min
    One of a series of short, open-ended dramas designed to stimulate discussion of values and ethics in relation to modern medical technology. This film deals with questions arising from advances in pre-natal diagnosis. Joanne, a victim of spina bifida, discovers that her unborn child has the same disease. A decision whether to terminate the pregnancy must be reached quickly. When her husband says that all he ever wanted was "a normal baby," Joanne counters with "What is normal?"
  • The Deserter
    The Deserter
    Julian Biggs 1956 30 min
    This short drama highlights the work of the Family Welfare Service in its compassionate tale of a husband who abandons his wife and children. Part of the Perspective series.
  • The End of Certainties
    The End of Certainties
    Jean-Daniel Lafond 2020 45 min
    More than a decade after the worldwide financial crisis of 2007–08, what does globalization mean today? Filmmaker-philosopher Jean-Daniel Lafond takes us behind the scenes of the International Economic Forum of the Americas, a massive annual gathering at which economists, financiers and politicians hold forth on the key issues of the day. Featuring first-hand testimonials by nearly two dozen influential men and women, The End of Certainties unfolds as a multi-voice meditation on the state of the world. This observational documentary offers a cogent assessment of globalization—and its ideals, disillusionment, fears and hopes—and the quest for a new humanism, characterized by greater inclusiveness and fairness.
  • Expectations
    Expectations
    Suzanne Gervais 1993 7 min
    In this short, poetic film, a woman, 9 months pregnant, senses the danger the world holds for her unborn child. She wanders the city holding her camera, expressing and transforming this anxiety through photographic images. Combining live-action images with paper cut-outs, this moving film is about the survival of life on earth, and the hopes we cherish for our children. A film without words.
  • Examined Life
    Examined Life
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    Astra Taylor 2008 1 h 28 min

    “The unexamined life is not worth living.” —Socrates

    Examined Life pulls philosophy out of academia and classrooms and puts it back on the streets.

    In Examined Life, filmmaker Astra Taylor accompanies some of today’s most influential thinkers on a series of unique excursions through places and spaces that hold particular resonance for them and their ideas.

  • The End of Summer
    The End of Summer
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    Michel Brault 1964 27 min
    Filmed at a summer cottage in the Laurentians north of Montreal, this film penetrates briefly the charmed world of the adolescent. Watching and listening, you sense the bittersweet mood of childhood's end, the poignant awareness that nothing will ever be the same after this summer at the lake. With English subtitles.