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Animal Life (21)

  • Along Newfoundland's Shores
    Along Newfoundland's Shores
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    1962 7 min
    This short documentary includes three vignettes about life off the coast of Newfoundland. In Island of Birds, we visit Green Island, a sea bird sanctuary where puffins frolic. In Caplin Harvest, little silvery fish called caplin spawn by washing ashore along the waves, making an easy catch for fishermen. In Outports on the Move, off-shore houses are pried loose from their foundation and floated to the Newfoundland mainland, where schools, hospitals, stores and services are available to the community.
  • Babine River Story
    Babine River Story
    1961 6 min
    This short documentary illustrates the work of the Department of Fisheries in combatting the problems caused by a rockslide in British Columbia’s Babine River during the annual salmon run.
  • Beyond the Naked Eye
    Beyond the Naked Eye
    Claudia Overing 1973 18 min
    A film of marvels, an amazing view of the living, pulsing universe contained in a single drop of water from an aquarium. Colour film and a microscope, and the infinite patience of the filmmakers, reveal life that no one would ordinarily see. This is a view of creation, of birth, life and death, of the laws of nature that apply even to the smallest of living things. It is a film that will add knowledge and insight to the pleasure of any audience.
  • The Garden of Ecos
    The Garden of Ecos
    Co Hoedeman 1997 10 min
    In this animated short, animals and plants are living peacefully together in a large garden until predators attack and ravage their habitat, stealing food and destroying plants. This creates an imbalance that leads to war. A fable that poetically describes how conflicts between 2 different groups in the same community can upset the natural balance of an ecosystem.
  • Horses of Suffield
    Horses of Suffield
    Nick Bakyta 1998 46 min
    This documentary explores the fate of the endangered wild Suffield horses of Alberta. Located near a military base close to Medicine Hat, these animals were originally domesticated but returned to the wild over generations. These horses face endangerment because of their growing numbers and the limitations of their environment.
  • Islands of the Frozen Sea
    Islands of the Frozen Sea
    Dalton Muir Hugh O'Connor , … 1958 29 min
    This short documentary offers a look at the life forms on the Queen Elizabeth Islands within the Arctic Circle. Even in this frigid zone of icebergs and glaciers a surprising variety of wildlife and vegetation is seen. Writings from the logbooks of early explorers provide vivid descriptions of scenes as arresting to them in their century as to today's explorer.
  • The Lady and the Owl
    The Lady and the Owl
    William Canning 1975 27 min
    This short documentary introduces us to the McKeevers, who care for injured owls. They live in the country and have built special cages for different purposes and species. There are many ways of being wounded, yet many ways of being cured
  • Life on Ice
    Life on Ice
    William Hansen 1986 27 min
    This documentary film focuses on the animal life that survives in this harsh arctic climates at the edge of the ice - from the simple algae to narwhals, polar bears, sea birds, seals, whales and walruses.
  • Lords of the Arctic
    Lords of the Arctic
    Caroline Underwood  &  Jean Lemire 2003 52 min
    This documentary by award-winning filmmaker Caroline Underwood focuses on Northern wildlife and its close and tragic relation to climate change, which affects all of the Arctic's fragile ecosystems. The example of the polar bear, studied by biologists for the past 20 years, is revealing. Scientists are also concerned about the precarious situation of bowhead whales and belugas, not to mention seals, walruses and many species of birds. Are the lords of the Arctic in danger of ending their reign over their kingdom of ice and snow?
  • The Man Who Talks with Wolves
    The Man Who Talks with Wolves
    Carlos Ferrand 2001 52 min
    In the wilderness of northern Quebec, Michel and Louise Pageau devote their lives to caring for injured wild animals and returning them to their natural habitat. Some animals simply cannot make it in the wild any more, so the Pageaus opened a shelter - the Pageau Refuge - for animals that cannot be released.

    Michel Pageau has been interested in animals since childhood. A former trapper and hunter, he has a gift for making contact with wild creatures. Pageau feels a particular connection with wolves - and for several years he has maintained a friendship with a number of them, based on mutual trust. Their level of communication is astonishing. When Michel calls, the wolves respond. At one point, Michel is distressed because their rapport seems to have broken down. Ché-Cché, the head of the pack, will not let him approach. Can Michel rebuild their relationship?

    With stunning images and poetic narration, The Man Who Talks with Wolves takes us into a mysterious world where the line between human and beast becomes blurred.
  • The Man Who Digs for Fish
    The Man Who Digs for Fish
    Jack Long 1979 13 min
    Frank Jenkinson, eighty-two, has been digging for fish for twenty-five years. His unorthodox conservationist practices have increased the numbers of the salmon population in the Jarvis Inlet from a modest 500 to 25 000. Using a spade and accompanied by his dog, Frank wades up and down the stream, digging for the newly hatched salmon that lie buried in the gravel. Without his intervention they risk dying before reaching maturity.
  • Modern Goose
    Modern Goose
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    Karsten Wall 2022 22 min
    Able to navigate by reading the Earth’s magnetic field, at home on land, air and water, geese straddle the territory between ancient instincts and the contemporary world. Combining beauty, humour and profound empathy, director Karsten Wall’s exquisitely observed film essay embeds in the daily life of these iconic animals to reveal a deeper message of continuity and connection.
  • Pocket Desert - Confessions of a Snake Killer
    Pocket Desert - Confessions of a Snake Killer
    Teresa Marshall  &  Craig Berggold 1999 24 min
    This personal documentary is the story of Teresa Marshall, who grew up on a British Columbia ranch. Every child needs a demon, and Teresa took battle against rattlesnakes. In the dry interior of B.C., the south Okanagan and Similkameen valleys form the bio-region known as Canada's "pocket desert." As settlers' dreams of creating an agricultural Eden erase fragile desert lands that support a breathtaking array of wild species, the narrator and her snake-hunting neighbours are forced to examine their environmental attitudes.
  • Paradise Lost
    Paradise Lost
    Evelyn Lambart 1970 3 min
    This short animation by artist and animator Evelyn Lambart offers a wordless plea for the right of all living creatures to a clean, unpolluted environment. With rich colour and intricate animated motion, the film features birds, butterflies and other woodland creatures succumbing to air pollution caused by human inventions.
  • Plea for the Wanderer
    Plea for the Wanderer
    Jean Coutu 1975 18 min
    This short documentary follows east and west coast salmon from river to sea and back again. Vivid close-ups capture exciting moments of the salmon hatching, jumping rapids and performing their intricate spawning ritual. The film also takes a look at threats posed by high-seas salmon fishing and the Canadian government's attempts to protect the salmon runs.
  • Red Runs the Fraser
    Red Runs the Fraser
    E. Taylor 1949 11 min
    This short documentary looks at the deep gorge of the Fraser River, shadowed by the mountain ranges of British Columbia. It is a highway for the mysterious migration of the Pacific salmon. The river shallows appear red with the flailing fish as they push up-river to spawn and die. A natural wonder puzzling to the scientist, the fish migration of spring and summer provides renewed activity for fishermen and cannery workers.
  • Shining Mountains - The Ancient Ones
    Shining Mountains - The Ancient Ones
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    Guy Clarkson 2005 47 min
    This documentary from the Shining Mountains series follows mountain guide, pilot and cinematographer Guy Clarkson on an ecological journey through the Rockies. Clarkson explores the area’s rock, ice, flora and fauna, which have, for eons, adjusted without complaint to every fluctuation in the natural order of things. Since the arrival of Europeans, however, the damage to ecosystems and tribes alike has approached a point of no return. From the glaciers of the Columbia Ice Fields, to the wolf packs of Yellowstone National Park, to the sacred hunting grounds of the Blackfoot nations, Clarkson finds perspective in the wisdom of the experts and elders who know this region best.
  • Waterfowl - A Resource in Danger
    Waterfowl - A Resource in Danger
    Don Virgo 1964 16 min
    This nature documentary shows the immense flocks of birds, their habits and their dependence on the wetlands of the Prairies. The Prairies are the incubators of vast numbers of Canadian waterfowl, principally ducks, but as more land is drained and cultivated there are fewer breeding grounds. Produced by the NFB for the Canadian Wildlife Service.
  • Wild in the City
    Wild in the City
    Gordon Fish 1985 16 min
    This short documentary films some of the wild animal species that have adapted to the city of Vancouver, from the familiar pigeons and starlings to the less familiar herons nesting in Stanley Park and a coyote in a farmer's field.
  • "Water, Water, Everywhere ..."
    "Water, Water, Everywhere ..."
    Gilles Blais 1971 4 min
    An underwater close-up of the death of a trout in polluted water. A film for conservationists and for all audiences concerned about preserving the natural world and the creatures that inhabit it.
  • The World at Your Feet
    The World at Your Feet
    Larry Gosnell 1953 22 min
    This short, downward-gazing documentary presents the soil in a new light. Man's inevitable and invaluable associate, the soil is a veritable thriving community in miniature, populated by living things of the animal, plant and insect worlds. Using highly magnified sequences, the film shows how this complex universe maintains a harmonious balance.