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War and Youth (16)

  • Boat People
    Boat People
    This content is not available for free viewing in your location.
    Kjell Boersma  &  Thao Lam 2023 9 min
    As a child in Vietnam, Thao’s mother often rescued ants from bowls of sugar water. Years later they would return the favour. Boat People is an animated documentary that uses a striking metaphor to trace one family’s flight across the turbulent waters of history.
  • Children of War
    Children of War
    Premika Ratnam 1986 25 min
    A short doc about teenagers from war and conflict zones. It focuses on the 1985-86 International Youth for Peace and Justice Tour – featuring young people from Central America, southern Africa and Northern Ireland – and depicts their interaction with Canadian high school students. Contains graphic accounts of violence.
  • Tamar
    Tamar
    Beverly Shaffer 1991 29 min
    This short documentary follows 10-year-old Tamar, a resident of Jerusalem, as she recounts the experiences of her daily life in Israel. She practices her baritone tuba and attends school, the local market, and a religious youth camp. She welcomes cousins who have emigrated from Russia, and expresses her desire for peace between Jews and Arabs.
  • Yacoub
    Yacoub
    Beverly Shaffer 1992 26 min
    This short documentary is a portrait of 9-year-old Yacoub, a Palestinian who lives in the Christian quarter of Jerusalem. He studies English and French at school, and enjoys shopping at outdoor markets and helping at his uncle's falafel shop. He'd like to be free to go out and play with his friends without his parents worrying about his safety. As we accompany him in his daily activities, we see how his life is affected by the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
  • Children from Overseas
    Children from Overseas
    Ruby Grierson  &  Stanley Hawes 1940 10 min
    A WWII film about children evacuated from Britain and sent to Canada for their safety. The film begins in England with children seeking shelter as anti-aircraft guns roar outside. On their arrival in Canada, they are thrilled by the brightly lit cities, powerful Canadian trains, hot dogs and ice cream. They find, too, that instead of becoming Mounties or cowboys, they have to go to school. The closing sequence shows them learning to ski and skate and preparing for Christmas in their new homes.
  • Neveen
    Neveen
    Beverly Shaffer 1992 29 min
    This short documentary presents a portrait of Neveen, a 12-year-old Palestinian girl who lives in the Shufat refugee camp on the outskirts of Jerusalem. Neveen gives us a tour of her typical day: helping her mother with chores, attending school, learning English with her aunt. Throughout, Neveen discusses her family history and her faith; her classmates engage in a lively discussion about the history of Israeli-Palestinian relations and what they think the future holds for all people in the region.
  • Ex-Child
    Ex-Child
    Jacques Drouin 1994 4 min
    This short animation tells the story of a young boy and his father, both of whom are enlisted to fight in the war. The boy's pride soon turns to fear as the bullets whistle overhead. His father takes his place and is immediately shot and killed. Horrified, the boy understands that war is not a game. Based on article 38 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, this film illustrates the right of children under the age of 15 not to be recruited into the armed forces.
  • Everybody's Children
    Everybody's Children
    Monika Delmos 2008 51 min
    Monika Delmos's documentary captures a year in the life of two teenage refugees, Joyce and Sallieu, who have left their own countries to make a new life in Ontario. Joyce, 17, left the Democratic Republic of Congo to avoid being forced into prostitution by her family. Sallieu, 16, had witnessed the murder of his mother as a young boy in wartorn Sierra Leone.

    Delmos follows them as they bear the normal pressures of being a teenager while simultaneously undergoing the refugee application process. She shows how the guidance and support of a handful of people make a real difference in the day-to-day lives of these children.
  • From Far Away
    From Far Away
    Shira Avni  &  Serene El-haj Daoud 2000 6 min
    This short animation tells the story of Saoussan, a young girl struggling to adjust to life in Canada after being uprooted from her wartorn homeland. She has come to seek a quieter and safer life, although memories of war and death linger, memories that are awakened when the children at her new school prepare for a scary Halloween. From Far Away speaks to the power within us all to adapt like Saoussan and to welcome a newcomer.

    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.
  • Grace, Milly, Lucy... Child Soldiers
    Grace, Milly, Lucy... Child Soldiers
    Raymonde Provencher 2010 1 h 12 min
    This feature documentary exposes the little-known tragedy of girl soldiers in Uganda. How can they learn to live normal lives again after being abducted and trained to become killing machines? Clinging to their dreams, Grace, Milly and Lucy are trying to restore meaning to their lives and break the silence surrounding the fate of a sacrificed generation.
  • Grace, Milly, Lucy... Child Soldiers (Classroom Length)
    Grace, Milly, Lucy... Child Soldiers (Classroom Length)
    Raymonde Provencher 2010 51 min
    This feature documentary exposes the little-known tragedy of girl soldiers in Uganda. How can they learn to live normal lives again after being abducted and trained to become killing machines? Clinging to their dreams, Grace, Milly and Lucy are trying to restore meaning to their lives and break the silence surrounding the fate of a sacrificed generation.
  • Him
    Him
    Lorna Kirk 2016 1 min
    Hand-drawn charcoal drawings movingly depict the loneliness and bewilderment of a child seeking safety in a war zone, in this timely very short animation that uses found sound to explore the powerlessness of the refugee experience.

    Produced as part of the 11th edition of the NFB’s Hothouse apprenticeship.
  • Of Lives Uprooted
    Of Lives Uprooted
    Pierre Marier 1988 9 min
    This short film illustrates the impact of the civil war in El Salvador and Guatemala through the words and drawings of children who have known conflict or refugee camps. The film was adapted from an exhibition entitled Disrupted Lives, organized by Linda Dale and sponsored by INTER-PARES and CUSO.
  • Suffer Little Children
    Suffer Little Children
    Sydney Newman 1945 10 min
    This short documentary is part of the Canada Carries On series. At the end of World War II there were sixty million sick and starving children in Europe. The United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration undertook to provide food, clothing, shelter, medical care, education and sympathetic attention to these terrorized victims of war.
  • The Streets of Saigon
    The Streets of Saigon
    Michael Rubbo 1973 28 min
    This is a "social study" in the true sense, filmed in the streets of Saigon while the Vietnamese war was still going strong. Life went on fairly normally except for the noticeable presence of the military, and the number of children, orphaned, homeless, thrown on their own resources to make a living in the streets. It is these children who are in the forefront of the film, along with some American volunteers who tried to help them.
  • Unspoken Tears (Trauma Through Words)
    Unspoken Tears (Trauma Through Words)
    This content is not available for free viewing in your location.
    Hélène Magny 2022 1 h 15 min
    How can refugee children integrate into Quebec’s school system, given the unspeakable violence they’ve experienced? Following a psychologist specializing in conflict-related trauma, Unspoken Tears pays tribute to the admirable resilience and survival strategies of these “small adults,” whose spirit the bombs and camps have not completely crushed, at a time when it is vital to raise awareness in Western societies of migration-related issues and children’s rights.