William Canning

Dief!

This documentary short is a portrait of Leader of the Progressive Conservative Party and 13th prime minister of Canada, John George Diefenbaker (1895-1979). Diefenbaker's political career spanned 6 decades. When he died in 1979, his state funeral and final train trip west became more a celebration of life than a victory for death.

Christ Is Risen

Easter service takes place in the Russian Orthodox church of St. Peter and St. Paul in Montréal. The depth of emotion touched by this ancient ceremony is reflected in the film. Filmed in the shadowy, taper-lit space, sonorous with chanting voices, and coloured with occasional views of the icons and frescos, the film shows an absorbing religious experience.

King of the Hill

This feature documentary follows one of the greatest Canadian baseball players of all time, Ferguson Jenkins, through the 1972-1973 season. From the hope and innocence of spring training to the dog days of an August slump, the camera gets up close and personal at the home plate and records the intimate chatter on the mound, in the dugout and in the locker room. It provides a glimpse into the rewards and pressures of sports stardom and the easy camaraderie of the quintessential summer sport.

Temples of Time

Filmed in the Canadian Rockies and in Garibaldi Park, this documentary features magnificent footage of mountain solitudes and the wildlife found there, of natural splendour in all its changing moods. The film carries the implicit warning that all this may pass away if people do not seek to preserve it. Without words.

Angus

A film portrait of Angus Mowat, with commentary by his son, author Farley Mowat. At seventy-six, Angus still shows an enviable capacity for life, turning his hand to things that the leisure of retirement now makes possible. One of these is the rebuilding of an old fishing boat, converting it to sail. This is a picture of a man who has reached his later years with no slackening of interest in life, who finds a good and constant companion in nature, and contentment in the quiet isolation of his cabin by the shore.

Don't Knock the Ox

The International Ox Pull, highlight of the Bridgewater, Nova Scotia, annual fair, is a holdover from the pioneer past when oxen cleared the land and tilled the soil. These beasts of burden have lost none of their pulling power, as demonstrated when they drag tons of weight loaded on sleds (the winner pulls up to 6 tons!). Competing teams come from various parts of the Maritimes and the Northeastern United States.

The Dowry

A little drama, almost a love triangle, filmed on the Canadian Atlantic coast, about a fisherman, his girl, and his boat. The boat needs a new engine but the owner lacks the cash. His girl's undertaker brother has money enough if he can be persuaded to lend it. What develops in the film is an object lesson showing that neither a boat nor a girl can be taken too much for granted.

Blades and Brass

This short documentary showcases the best of the 1967 National Hockey League season, set to music in the Tijuana Brass style. Filmed with an eye to grace and style of movement, the film suggests the bullring as much as the hockey arena.

War II: Total War

A film record, suitable for schools, of the war years of 1939 to 1945, showing major developments from the rise of Nazism in Germany to the first atomic bomb at Hiroshima. It does not minimize the brutality of war, but shows how this "total war," unlike wars of the past that engaged only the men of the fighting front, involved in varying degree almost every individual of every nation.