Douglas Macdonald

No Problem

An everyman who lives alone desires female companionship. The trouble is, he's got two extra personalities who pop out and ruin things: an id, who's usually naked and has no inhibitions, and a super ego, who's a prude and a scold. Our hero goes through his little black book calling woman after woman: Natalie agrees to a date, but the warring three-headed personalities sink that outing before he gets through her apartment door. Soon, he's down to the last name in his book: Zolga. Is there any hope? Can he just be one self?

Blackfly

A young surveyer, new to Ontario, encounters the blackflies. Over and over again, he encounters those blackflies.

Strings

This film explores the distant relationship between an elderly amateur musician, the woman who lives in the apartment above him, and the leaky bathtub that is bothering them both.

Lord of the Sky

In this animated environmental parable, we find a people living in harmony with nature, until carelessness leads to the ravens' revenge. We follow a boy's courageous journey to the spirit world to find the only one who can save his village from the resulting darkness--the Lord of the sky. An artistic unity of form and content, Lord of the Sky is a dazzling combination of 3-D models, puppets, special effects and cut-out paper animation. Its intricate, beautifully rendered drawings reflect the natural environment and cultural heritage of the Pacific Northwest. The film speaks strongly of the need for ecological balance in the world.

Every Dog's Guide to the Playground

In this animated film our hero, Wally the Safety Dog, continues to suffer a host of injuries as he instructs his master in the rules of playground safety. This is the second film in which Wally provides a proper example to young adults, parents, and caregivers in the area of child safety.

The Phoenix

The ancient myth of the phoenix, the legendary bird with the amazing power of self-regeneration, is reborn with a modern twist. In this animated adaptation of a story by Sylvia Townsend Warner, we follow Lord Strawberry's search for the fabled bird. He finds it in the deserts of Arabia and brings it home to his aviary. Upon Lord Stawberry's death, however, the phoenix ends up as a sideshow in a fairground. This spirited satire of human foibles, with its timely message about our treatment of nature's creatures, will appeal to young people and adults alike.

To Be

Blending fantasy and reality, this animated short is a bold inquiry into an as yet unresolved problem - the nature of human identity. When a scientist creates a machine that can make copies of physical objects, including humans, a number of ethical questions arise. Is the technique moral? What of its safety? A film by Oscar-winning filmmaker John Weldon (who also wrote the catchy banjo tune that punctuates the story's changing moods).

Creative Process: Norman McLaren

Norman McLaren was a cinematic genius who made films without cameras, and music without instruments. He produced sixty films in a stunning range of styles and techniques, collecting over 200 international awards, and world recognition. In Creative Process, director Donald McWilliams demystifies the process of artistic creation. Drawing on McLaren's private film vaults, a gold mine of experimental footage and uncompleted films, McWilliams explores McLaren's methods, including his celebrated "pixillation" technique, and his daring forays into animated surrealism.

The Wanderer

A stranger comes to a peaceful village bearing gifts that bear a terrible price.

Of Dice and Men

Using splashy hand-drawn animation, the story about a man who ends up in the hospital and probability theory is illustrated. When the guy awakens in a hospital bed, the doctor begins spouting all sorts of statistical probabilities--at which point the patient seems confused. So, the doctor explains the history behind probability theory as well as its application.

The Dingles

The Dingles are Doris and her three cats. Life is idyllic, until the day a big windstorm threatens to blow the cats away.

Dreams of a Land

The story of Samuel de Champlain's futile search for a passage to China in North America and his later founding of Quebec.

Every Dog's Guide to Complete Home Safety

This hilarious short animation offers over 40 safety tips for homes with infants and young children. The film's hero is a very earnest, somewhat pompous, but endearing dog called Wally. A "professional" in home safety, Wally is assigned to a house with an infant whose parents have little safety consciousness. Accidents and near-accidents succeed each other with lightning speed, constantly putting Wally to the test.

Lucretia

In an animated film sprinkled with magic and stardust, an impish little girl from Hades turns common assumptions topsy turvy. Lucretia is very curious about Christmas, a subject she has never heard spoken of above a whisper. One Christmas Eve she sneaks away and, after searching the galaxy, discovers Christmas on Earth in the company of a new-found friend. Based on the poem Lucretia by author-journalist Peter Desbarats.

Elephantrio

In this zany tale, three storybook characters experience the dangers and temptations of life while trying to maintain physical and moral integrity. Three well-known animators collaborated to create this potpourri, and though each section was animated independently of the others, recurring threads of story and theme weave the whole into a unified moral fable. Film without words.

Giordano

An animated film promoting the value of freedom of expression as stipulated in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Real Inside

Hopeful job candidate Buck Boom is dynamic, forceful, confident and creative. But can he convince Mr. Mudgin, the personnel manager, to hire him? You see, Boom is an animated character in a live-action world and Mudgin is not used to dealing with someone who is different.

Paradise

An Oscar-nominated short from 1985 by Ishu Patel, which raises the question – which is preferable, a beautiful gilded cage, or your freedom?

Canada Vignettes: Emergency Numbers

A "cat and dog fight" film that also reminds us to keep emergency numbers close to our telephones.

Blackberry Subway Jam

This short animation based on a popular children's story by Robert Munsch tells the story of a young boy with a major problem: his apartment has become a subway station but his mother doesn't believe him and blames him for the commuters' mess.

The Boy and the Snow Goose

This animated short tells the story of a young boy who finds an injured snow goose and nurses it back to health. Constant companions through the sun-filled days of summer, the two sadly separate in the fall when the bird obeys the call to join its flock for the annual flight south. Will the friendship endure?

Narcissus

In this short film by Norman McLaren, dancers enact the Greek tragedy of Narcissus, the beautiful youth whose excessive self-love condemned him to a trapped existence. Skilfully merging film, dance and music, the film is a compendium of the techniques McLaren acquired over a lifetime of experimentation.

The Awful Fate of Melpomenus Jones

This amusing short animation tells of a polite and timid young minister with a major shortcoming: he just cannot bring himself to say goodbye, and this causes him great grief and considerable consternation. On the first day of his vacation to visit friends, Melpomenus somehow stays and stays until, on the last day of his holiday, he finally departs in an unexpected way. Based on the Stephen Leacock short story, the film is set to toe-tapping ragtime music.

Hot Money

Burt, a clever ex-con, has changed his identity and has managed to land a job as a deputy in small town in upstate New York. On the 4th of July, while the drunken Sheriff Paisley is busy with the local parade and festivities, Burt quietly steals a million dollars in cash from the cellar safe in the local rich old widow's house. Unsuspected, Burt makes plans to live the rest of his life in the lap of luxury in a far off place with his attractive girlfriend, local hash house waitress Jeanette. But when a crisis of conscience hits him like a wave of ice cold water, he starts to think twice about his dastardly deed, and how that purloining of the old lady's money is wrongly affecting his friends as well as innocent locals. But will Burt do the right thing?

Canada Vignettes: Melvin Arbuckle, Famous Canadian

W.O. Mitchell recounts Newton's Law of Falling Backhouses, a story based on the youthful pranks of his prairie childhood.

Sons of Haji Omar

Haji Omar and his three sons belong to the Lakankhel, a Pashtoon tribal group in northeastern Afghanistan. The film focuses on his family: Haji Omar, the patriarch; Anwar, the eldest, his father's favorite, a pastoralist and expert horseman; Jannat Gul, cultivator and ambitious rebel; and Ismail, the youngest, attending school with a view to a job as a government official.