Friday: About Cars

Back to the Land

January 1976 •French

Feature-length documentary as part of Pierre Perrault's Abitibian Cycle. The filmmaker questions the past and present of Abitibi and draws up, face to face, the promises of colonization in the 1930s and the great disappointment caused by the closing of the land in the 1970s. There are witnesses to the heroic era, including the cultivator Hauris Lalancette, as well as extracts from films by Father Maurice Proulx (1934-1940).

Cinéma Vérité: Defining the Moment

June 2000 •English

A documentary about direct-cinema from its very beginnings (Nanook of the North) to the fake-direct-cinema of the Blair Witch Project. All the important direct-cinema filmmakers are portrayed and/or interviewed: Leacock, Wiseman, Maysles, Pennebaker, Reisz and others.

The Things I Cannot Change

January 1967 •English

"This feature documentary is considered to be the forerunner of the NFB's Challenge for Change Program. The film offers in inside look at 3 weeks in the life of the Bailey family. Trouble with the police, begging for stale bread, and the birth of another child are just some of the issues they face. Through it all, the father tries to explain his family's predicament. Although filmed in Montreal, the film offers an anatomy of poverty as it occurs throughout North America." - NFB

Little Burgundy

January 1968 •French

"This film is one of the first French Unit productions of the “Société Nouvelle/Challenge for Change” program. When an old area of Montréal is to be demolished to make way for a new low-income housing development, is there anything the residents can do to protect their own interests? The film documents such a situation in the Little Burgundy district of Montréal and shows how the residents organized themselves into a committee that successfully influenced the city’s housing policy." - Anthology Film Archives

Cesar's Bark Canoe

January 1971 •French

"This documentary depicts a canoe being built in the traditional manner. Cesar Newashish, a 67-year-old Attikamek of the Manawan Reserve North of Montréal, uses only birchbark, cedar splints, spruce roots, and gum. With a sure hand he works methodically to fashion a craft unsurpassed in function or beauty of design. Building a canoe solely from the materials that the forest provides may become a lost art, even among the Native Peoples whose traditional craft it is. The film is free of spoken commentary but text appears on the screen in Cree, French, and English." - Anthology Film Archives

Belle famille

July 1978 •French

A working class family leaves St-Henri quarter in Montréal to build a new home in the countryside.

Michel Brault, l'instinct de vue

Invalid date •French

With a View to Realism: The Making of Man on the Roof

January 2004 •Swedish

A documentary by Ronny Svensson and Markus Stromqvist on the making of Bo Widerberg's 1976 movie Man on the Roof, featuring extensive interviews with cast and crew

Celtic Legends: Irish Legends

January 1999 •English

This revealing program shows that the search for the Celtic Gods of Britain is an extremely difficult task. Their origins are shrouded in mystery, but they are kept alive in a series of enduring stories. This program presents many of these stories, which have been passed down from generation to generation.

2Doc: What Are We Doing?

September 2023 •Dutch

In 2022, 92% of those affected encountered aggression or violence. Frans Bromet portrays six influences who encounter violence while carrying out their work. The violence with which the actual consequences are, leaves personal physical, especially mental, traces.

Seven Women: Miu Kam-Fung

November 1976 •

Miu Kam-fung, who plays the film’s titular character, addresses her identity as housewife and actress in Patrick Tam’s commentary on the dangers of rampant consumerism, seen as a defining moment for contemporary Hong Kong. In its studied references to Godard, Tam’s work buzzes with modern life—supermarkets, billboards, television—and juxtaposes these references with questions about marital infidelity, middle-class morality, and even political sentiment.

The Phantom: The Man, the Myth, the Legend

January 1996 •English

HBO First Look's episode on The Phantom

Seven Women: Liza Wang

November 1976 •

In the last episode of Patrick Tam’s anthology series “Seven Women” (1976), Lisa (Lisa Wang) suffers from "environmental depression" and those around her treat her like a lunatic. Joyce deploys a creative mix of dialogue and monologue to illustrate Lisa's complicated personality. She might act like any normal obedient daughter around her parents, yet other times she reveals her overly sensitive and suspicious mind as her moods run the gamut from poetic to violent. The villa where Lisa is sent to heal becomes a tumultuous battleground when a young doctor who has his own psychological hang-ups begins treating her and a conflict of egos is ignited.

Whore Revolution

August 2023 •Spanish

Whore Revolution is led by members of the organizations OMESPRO La Paz and OMESPRO Santa Cruz; These become builders of a story that makes use of a symbolic lever to transfer the central discussions of the whore universe to a political and poetic space. The film is structured in four parts with their own entity, which together make up a piece that has the vocation and versatility to invade all types of spaces—except virtual ones. María Galindo turns the camera and questions the viewer: "Without money and without work... I want to see you in my place."

Seven Women: Liu Wing-Sheung

November 1976 •

The first episode of Patrick Tam’s anthology series “Seven Women” (1976)

Seven Women: Ivy Ho, Yeung Si-Dai, Lee Yan-Yi

November 1976 •

The third episode of Patrick Tam’s anthology series “Seven Women” (1976), with three short stories combined.

Aluvión

June 2022 •Spanish

Argentina 2017. Six intertwined stories. The pension reform advances in the National Congress. TV broadcasts the conflict. Lucrecia discusses with her boss what to report. Meanwhile, in a community kitchen, Rebeca calls for a march to defend her rights.

Les cobayes de la CIA

June 2015 •French

During the 1950s, 60s and 70s, the US military and the CIA launched large-scale illegal medical and military experimentation programmes on not always willing citizens... At the same time as the US was spearheading the Nuremberg trial of a similar Nazi experimental apparatus. Psychic submission, mental manipulation, brainwashing, irradiation, administration of toxic substances administered to guinea pigs recruited from among America's underprivileged, prisoners, the sick and orphans. The aim of the manoeuvre: to refine the techniques of psychological warfare, anti-atomic defence, interrogation... and to manufacture a human machine ready to kill. President Clinton made a public apology in 1995, acknowledging the existence of these secret programmes following a resounding commission of enquiry.

Nuit debout

June 2017 •French

Never Stop Dreaming: The Life and Legacy of Shimon Peres

June 2018 •English

A look back on the life of Nobel Peace Prize winner, Shimon Peres, who served as prime minister of Israel twice and negotiated the 1994 Israel-Jordan peace treaty.