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Portraits (20)
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Bing Bang BoomJoan Henson 1969 24 minThis short 1969 documentary follows acclaimed innovator and composer R. Murray Schafer as he visits a Grade 7 music classroom to teach students that all the sounds of life are a part of music. Schafer’s provocations help these curious learners discover music without instruments or painfully learned notes and scales. Schafer encourages the students to listen to every sound around them and then transform what they hear—voices, steps, breath—into music. The fun-filled result is a convincing illustration for educators: children learn best when it’s from the inside out. -
Doctor, Lawyer, Indian ChiefCarol Geddes 1986 28 minA tribute to Indigenous women everywhere, this short documentary focuses on 5 women from across Canada. Of varied ages and backgrounds, they have achieved success in a variety of careers: as the Yukon legislature's first Indigenous woman minister (Margaret Joe), as a deck hand on a fishing boat (Corinne Hunt), as a teacher (Sophie MacLeod), as a lawyer (Roberta Jamieson), and as a band council chief (Sophie May Pierre - St. Mary’s Indian Band of the Ktunaxa Nation off the Ktunaxa Nation). Each of these women talks about how she got to where she is today while emphasizing the importance of Indigenous culture - its values, art, and spiritual beliefs - in helping her to develop a sense of self and seeing through rough times, including residential school experiences.
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The Great DepartureKevin Papatie 2008 5 min
For the sake of his children, in 2001 an Algonquin father went back to school. Now, encouraged by his friends in the Kitcisakik community, he is going on to CEGEP.
Since 2004, Wapikoni Mobile has been giving Indigenous youth the opportunity to speak out using video and music. This short film was made with the guidance of these travelling studios and is part of the 2007 Selection - Wapikoni Mobile DVD. -
Like Kai ChanJane Churchill 2005 11 minIn this short film, sculptor and textile artist Kai Chan shares his artistic philosophy of economy and repetition with young artists who build extraordinary, complex 3D structures using simple materials and basic techniques. Part of the I Can Make Art ...series.
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I Can Make Art ... Like Marcelle FerronJane Churchill 2005 10 minMarcelle Ferron was a Quebec-born painter and stained glass maker, and a dominant figure in contemporary art in Quebec and Canada. Frequent stays in a dull, dark hospital room due to a childhood illness left her with a passion for light and colour that is evident in her abstract painting and modern stained glass creations.
In I Can Make Art Like Marcelle Ferron, students are exposed to contemporary abstract art and discover Ferron's luminous world. Inspired by her extraordinary art, they create their own works, experimenting with the texture and transparency of cellophane and paint.
Awash in colour and bold design, I Can Make Art Like Marcelle Ferron captures her passion and reinforces the important legacy of this groundbreaking artist.
I Can Make Art is a series of six short films that take a kids'-eye view on a diverse group of Canadian visual artists. -
I Can Make Art ... Like Maud LewisJane Churchill 2005 12 minIn this short film from the I Can Make Art Like... series, a group of Grade 6 students are inspired by Maud Lewis, the celebrated Nova Scotian folk artist who painted scenes of country life. With the help of artist Kyle Jackson, they create a folk art painting of their own downtown neighbourhood. Informative, touching and filled with the magic of creation, this film shows both the power and simple pleasure of folk art.
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Like Andrew QappikJane Churchill 2005 11 minThis short documentary is a portrait of Andrew Qappik, a world-renowned Inuit printmaker from Pangnirtung, Nunavut. Originally inspired by images in the comic books he read as a child, Andrew now finds his subjects in the stories, traditions and day-to-day events of his world.
In I Can Make Art Like Andrew Qappik, he captivates his student audience by creating a soapstone relief print before their very eyes. Then it's the kids' turn. They explore Andrew's symbolic imagery - and their own - as they each create a self-portrait relief point. -
I Can Make Art ... Like Ron NoganoshJane Churchill 2005 15 minThis short film introduces kids to sculptor Ron Noganosh, who transforms items like rusted hubcaps and computer parts into art. Inspired by Ron's found-object sculptures, a group of primary school students discover how to turn "junk" into art. Part of the I Can Make Art series of 6 films that take a kids'-eye view on a diverse group of Canadian visual artists.
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Like Emily CarrJane Churchill 2005 10 minThis short film is part of a series entitled I Can Make Art and focuses on the work of Emily Carr. In this film, kids examine Carr's unusual world and the inspiration for her haunting landscapes. Drawing on this inspiration, they then attempt to create a giant forest mural on a window in their school. The series is comprised of six short films that take a kid's-eye view of a diverse group of Canadian visual artists.
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Mr. Symbol ManBruce Moir & Bob Kingsbury 1974 49 min"Blissymbols" are giving children without speech a joyous new means of communication. This film tells the story of a remarkable man, Australian Charles K. Bliss, who invented a symbol language (pictographs) originally as a means of overcoming the barrier of differing languages, and then found that it has an even greater, more rewarding application when used with speech-handicapped children. This is witnessed in Toronto and Montréal, where the Blissymbols are being used.
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Mavis Staines: Sharing DanceLeah Nelson 2019 4 minWhen Mavis Staines took the helm of Canada’s National Ballet School in 1989, the pedagogy of ballet was due for an evolution. Driven by a belief system that honoured tradition but challenged outdated practices, Staines set in motion a paradigm shift that has transformed ballet training in Canada and around the world.
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Mr. Mergler's GiftBeverly Shaffer 2004 30 minIn this short film from Oscar® winner Beverly Shaffer, 9-year-old prodigy Xin Ben takes lessons from Daniel Mergler, a piano teacher at the end of his career. In this remarkable story about a student and her mentor, Xin Ben and Mergler meet 26 times over the course of one year. During this time, Xin Ben illuminates Mergler's final months as an instructor with her youthful talent, and he, in return, lovingly guides her towards a life in music.
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Puberty - Part 1Alanis Obomsawin 1975 14 minAn intimate portrait of Marie Leo, a Sto:lo woman who was adopted into a Líl̓wat family as a baby. Marie’s gentle narrative of her remarkable early childhood demonstrates a deep connection to culture, land and family that continues to endure.
This short is part of the L’il’wata series. In the early 1970s, at the outset of her documentary career, Alanis Obomsawin visited the Líl̓wat Nation, an Interior Salish First Nation in British Columbia, and created a series of shorts that provide personal narratives about Líl̓wat culture, histories and knowledge. -
Puberty Part 1 - Kwaozán'tsut ti pál7a 1 (Salish Version)Alanis Obomsawin 1975 14 minAn intimate portrait of Marie Leo, a Sto:lo woman who was adopted into a Líl̓wat family as a baby. Marie’s gentle narrative of her remarkable early childhood demonstrates a deep connection to culture, land and family that continues to endure.
This short is part of the L’il’wata series. In the early 1970s, at the outset of her documentary career, Alanis Obomsawin visited the Líl̓wat Nation, an Interior Salish First Nation in British Columbia, and created a series of shorts that provide personal narratives about Líl̓wat culture, histories and knowledge. -
Raymond Klibansky: From Philosophy to LifeAnne-Marie Tougas 2002 50 minThe filmmaker did not suspect that meeting a philosopher would have such a profound effect. It compelled her to shed light on the exceptional life of Raymond Klibansky, his uncommon destiny and his path to humanity. As a German Jewish philosopher of action, he lived in times of upheaval, war and hate. As a young man, he moved in the circles of Karl Jaspers, Erwin Panofsky, Marianne Weber, Ernst Cassirer and Albert Enstein. Early in his career, he made his mark as a historian of ideas and a philosopher, and his work was known around the world. Then came the Nazi lie, which he condemned and, better yet, fought. In the prime of his life, he was Chief Intelligence Officer in the British Secret Service during World War Two. He moved to Montreal in 1946, where he has continued to promote tolerance and fight for freedom on all fronts.
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SummerhillDennis Miller 1966 27 minA visit to a school without fixed rules, where students study as they wish, and are their own masters. A co-educational English boarding school, Summerhill was founded by Alexander Neill a half-century ago. In the film he explains his objectives, and from the activities of the children at work and play can be seen how his methods work. School, he says, should put preparation for life ahead of learning.
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The Scholar in Society: Northrop Frye in ConversationDonald Winkler 1984 28 minThis film interview affords a glimpse of a bold and learned mind illuminating important social issues. Responding to questions on the related topics of language, democracy, and the role of the modern university, acclaimed literary critic Northrop Frye explains why education is crucial: "A democracy cannot function without articulate citizens." Frye claims that the university is a place where individual liberty becomes possible, as students learn to question beliefs imposed by society. For Frye, reading and writing are "instruments of freedom."
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Two Films by LipsettDonald Rennick 1968 28 minIn this short documentary, teenagers discuss experimental Arthur Lipsett films they have just watched. What do these films mean? What feelings or thoughts do they evoke? What do they suggest about the evolution of mankind and the future of life on Earth? The 2 Arthur Lipsett films being discussed, Free Fall and A Trip Down Memory Lane, are also included.
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WaaPaKe (Tomorrow)Jules Arita Koostachin 2023 1 h 20 minFor generations, the suffering of residential school Survivors has radiated outward, impacting Indigenous families and communities. Dr. Jules Arita Koostachin’s deeply personal documentary WaaPaKe (Tomorrow) moves beyond intergenerational trauma, with an invitation to unravel the tangled threads of silence and unite in collective freedom and power.
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Zulu TimeJonny Silver 1999 52 minBest 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.
