Skip to content
Accessibility
Portraits (17)
-
Behind the MasksTom Shandel 1973 36 minThis short documentary takes a fascinating look at the meaning behind some Indigenous masks from the North Pacific coast. Our guide is professor Claude Levi-Strauss of Paris, a world-renowned anthropologist and authority on the structural analysis of myth. He explains the significant features of 3 masks, and the stories behind them, while also visiting an Indigenous carver on Vancouver Island. -
Eye Witness No. 65Hector Lemieux & Ronald Weyman 1954 11 minOld Glory Weather Station: Life on top of the world is a year-round experience for meteorologists who work at the highest observatory in the Canadian Rockieson on Old Glory Mountain in British Columbia. Easter in Jerusalem: Roman Catholic priests from many Canadian communities join in a pilgrimage to the Holy City during Easter week.
-
Four Women of EgyptTahani Rached 1997 1 h 29 minThis feature documentary invites you to partake in a discussion between 4 Egyptian women of different political and religious stripe. Amina, Safynaz, Shahenda and Wedad are Muslim, Christian, or non-religious, but they are first and foremost friends. They listen to one another's views and argue openly, without ever breaking the bond that unites them. How do we get along with each other when our views collide? A timely question, and a universal one. Four Women of Egypt takes on this challenge, and their confrontation redefines tolerance.
-
GriefwalkerTim Wilson 2008 1 h 10 minThis documentary introduces us to Stephen Jenkinson, once the leader of a palliative care counselling team at Toronto's Mount Sinai Hospital. Through his daytime job, he has been at the deathbed of well over 1,000 people. What he sees over and over, he says, is "a wretched anxiety and an existential terror" even when there is no pain. Indicting the practice of palliative care itself, he has made it his life's mission to change the way we die - to turn the act of dying from denial and resistance into an essential part of life.
-
In God's CommandGarth Pritchard 1995 47 minThis documentary introduces us to Captain Mark Sargent, chaplain to the Canadian peacekeepers (soldiers of the First Battalion, Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry) stationed in former Yugoslavia. It offers an intimate look at the work of this remarkable man as he travels from bunker to bunker and from village to village, ministering to soldiers and civilians caught in the bloody conflict that has torn apart the Balkans.
-
In My Own Time - Diary of a Cancer PatientJoseph Viszmeg 1995 45 minThis documentary tells the story of Joseph Viszmeg, an Edmonton filmmaker who was diagnosed with a rare form of adrenal cancer in 1991. Doctors gave him a year to live, but 4 years later Viszmeg is very much alive. This is his personal account of living with this disease.
-
My Healing Journey: Seven Years with CancerJoseph Viszmeg 1999 46 minThis documentary is about Edmonton filmmaker Joe Viszmeg and his battle with cancer. In 1991, Viszmeg was diagnosed with adrenal cancer and told he wouldn’t live through the year. Four years later, he made In My Own Time—Diary of a Cancer Patient. In My Healing Journey: Seven Years with Cancer, he tells the story of how he survived the roller coaster of a deadly disease. He died in 1999.
-
Madwoman of GodJean-Daniel Lafond 2008 1 h 16 minThis feature-length film tells the story of the passion between Marie de l’Incarnation, a mid-seventeenth-century nun and God, her "divine spouse." Fusing documentary and acting by Marie Tifo, whom we follow as she rehearses for this demanding role, the film paints an astonishing portrait of this mystic who abandoned her son and left France to build a convent in Canada, where she became the first female writer in New France.
-
Ojigkwanong - Encounter with an Algonquin SageLucie Ouimet 2000 26 minWilliam Commanda, whose Algonquin name is Ojigkwanong, was born on the Maniwaki reserve in Quebec in 1913. The story of his early life is a familiar one: the loss of Indigenous culture, numbing poverty and escape into alcohol. In 1961 Commanda, then chief of his reserve, was terminally ill. He had a vision that would transform his life and those of his people. Imagining a Circle of all Nations, his first gesture was to reconcile the Algonquins and Iroquois. Since then, he has devoted himself to the reconciliation of peoples and cultures. The message of this old sage is universal: healing is the main priority and can only be achieved through forgiveness and tolerance. In this, he shares much with other remarkable individuals who managed to wash politics clean of resentment: Gandhi, Martin Luther King, the Dalai Lama and Nelson Mandela. In French with English subtitles.
-
O'SiemGillian Darling 1996 53 minThis documentary offers an engrossing portrait of Gene Harry, devoted husband, father, and foster father. He's also a Church Minister, champion dragon boat racer, long-boat canoe paddler, and Eagle Spirit Dancer in the traditional Salish Long House. In short, he's remarkable. And when he speaks, people listen. Discover why with this up-close look a the humble, yet charismatic, First Nations spiritual healer.
-
The Pacifist Who Went to WarDavid Neufeld 2002 51 minThis documentary is the story of two Mennonite brothers from Manitoba who were forced to make a decision in 1939, as Canada joined World War II. In the face of 400 years of pacifist tradition, should they now go to war? Ted became a conscientious objector while his brother went into military service. Fifty years later, the town of Winkler dedicates its first war memorial and John begins to share his war experiences with Ted.
-
PilgrimageTerence Macartney-Filgate 1958 30 minThis short documentary by Terence Macartney-Filgate focuses on the never-ending pilgrimage to Montreal's St. Joseph's Oratory. A beautiful shrine set against Mount Royal, the Oratory draws pilgrims by the thousands every year – by plane, by bus, and on foot. What's the draw? Watch this film, and listen to Brother Placide Vermandère tell you all about it.
-
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.
-
Some Kind of ArrangementAli Kazimi 1997 45 minIn this documentary, the age-old tradition of arranged marriages takes a modern twist when 3 second-generation South Asian young people decide to marry. Engaging and refreshingly candid in their opinions, they make it clear that arranged marriages aren't what they used to be.
-
Spirit of Tibet: Journey to Enlightenment, The Life and World of Dilgo Khyentse RinpocheMatthieu Ricard 1998 46 minThe Spirit of Tibet is an intimate glimpse into the life and world of one of Tibet's most revered 20th-century teachers: Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche (1910-1991). A writer, poet and meditation master, Khyentse Rinpoche was an inspiration to all who encountered him. His many students throughout the world included the Dalai Lama. This unique portrait tells Khyentse Rinpoche's story from birth to death... to rebirth--from his escape following China's invasion of Tibet to his determination to preserve and transmit Buddhist teachings far and wide. His life leads us on a journey revealing the wonders of Tibet's art, ritual, philosophy and sacred dance. Along with rarely photographed areas of Tibet, Bhutan and Nepal, this film features interviews with the Dalai Lama, who speaks candidly about his own spiritual life. Director Matthieu Ricard--noted French photographer, Buddhist monk and best-selling author--travelled with Khyentse Rinpoche for over 14 years.
-
TulkuGesar Mukpo 2009 1 h 15 minGesar Mukpo was three when he became one of the first people born in the West to be recognized as a tulku the present-day reincarnation of a Buddhist master. For his entire life, he's been trying to figure out what that really means. Starting in the mid-1970s, Tibetan teachers including Gesar's father, Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche; began recognizing Western children as tulkus. Suddenly, a system that had ensured stable spiritual power and authority in Tibetan society for 800 years was transplanted into a completely different culture. In this intensely personal documentary, Gesar sets out to meet other tulkus to find out how they reconcile modern and ancient, East and West. Journeying through Canada, the United States, India and Nepal, he encounters four other tulkus who struggle with the meaning of this profound dilemma. What does it mean to carry on this ancient tradition designed for an old world when you're living in a completely new one? How will Gesar and other Western tulkus fulfill their destiny? Tulku was produced as part of the Reel Diversity Competition for emerging filmmakers of colour. Reel Diversity is a National Film Board of Canada initiative in partnership with CBC Newsworld.
-
Ville-MarieDenys Arcand 1965 27 minToday it is the city of Montreal, but 3 centuries ago the tiny band of missionary founders called it Ville-Marie, the holy city of Mary. This film goes back to its beginning and those who felt called to plant an oasis of Christianity in the North American wilderness. In an imaginative, at times almost surrealistic, way the film recalls the highborn company from France, and shows what survives of Ville-Marie in the Montreal of today.
