Canada Vignettes

Part 5 · Jan 1, 1978

Canada Vignettes: Lady Frances Simpson

A humorous account of the pioneering journey of Lady Frances Simpson, along with her piano, from England to Manitoba.

Part 6 · Jan 1, 1978

Canada Vignettes: Holidays

A montage of watercolour images of the work and occasional play of a farm family.

Part 7 · Jan 1, 1978

Canada Vignettes: Voyageurs

An animated film about the hardships of voyageurs' lives in the early Canadian fur trade.

Part 8 · Jan 1, 1978

Canada Vignettes: Trees

Life in Canada is reflected by people's comments on trees as a tree is shown undergoing seasonal changes.

Part 9 · Jan 1, 1978

Canada Vignettes: Logger

The history of the development of modern logging techniques on the British Columbia coast.

Part 10 · Jan 1, 1978

Canada Vignettes: Faces

Animated images showing the variety of people who live in Canada.

Part 11 · Jan 1, 1978

Canada Vignettes: Toronto

An animated film depicting the evolution of the City of Toronto from 1749 to 1978.

Part 12 · Jan 1, 1978

Canada Vignettes: Newfoundland

An examination of the Viking explorers who were the first Europeans to discover Canada.

Part 13 · Jan 1, 1978

Canada Vignettes: Skier

In this short vignette, skier Kathy Kreiner prepares for and participates in her Olympic gold-medal race at Innsbruck.

Part 14 · Jan 1, 1978

Canada Vignettes: Captain Cook

Two hundred years ago Captain Cook stopped briefly at Nootka Sound. This animated vignette depicts how he began the sea otter trade which led to the development of the Pacific north west.

Part 15 · Jan 1, 1978

Canada Vignettes: Land Bridge

This film describes the journey of nomadic Asian people to North America via a land bridge.

Part 16 · Jan 1, 1978

Canada Vignettes: Port Royal

This is the story of the first French settlers in North America, who spent their first winter on an island in the Bay of Fundy. Despite overwhelming hardships the survivors, joined by other new colonists, eventually established Port Royal, the foundation of Acadia and the Acadian people.

Part 17 · Jan 1, 1978

Canada Vignettes: Trading Post

An animated film about the Hudson's Bay trading post, and the relationship between fur traders and Indians.

Part 18 · Jan 1, 1978

Canada Vignettes: Flin Flon

This short documentary vignette reveals the curious origin of the name of Flin Flon, Manitoba.

Part 19 · Jan 1, 1978

Canada Vignettes: Bill Miner

Bill Miner was a train robber in British Columbia at the turn of the century. This animated film depicts a disastrous episode in his career.

Part 20 · Jan 1, 1978

Canada Vignettes: Stunt Family

This short film from the Canada Vignettes series profiles a unique French-Canadian family, the Fourniers, 12 of whom work as stunt men and women for films.

Part 21 · Jan 1, 1978

Canada Vignettes: The Maple Leaf

The maple leaf on the Canadian flag turns into two profiles that illustrate the many relationships between people.

Part 22 · Jan 1, 1978

Canada Vignettes: The Performer

This short film from the Canada Vignettes series features tenor Roger Doucet singing the Canadian national anthem, O Canada, before a hockey game in the Montreal Forum.

Part 23 · Jan 1, 1978

Canada Vignettes: Men of the Deeps, Cape Breton

This short vignette features coal mines in New Waterford and Glace Bay, Nova Scotia, along with traditional Cape Breton folk songs sung by Men of the Deeps - a miners' choral group.

Part 24 · Jan 1, 1978

Canada Vignettes: Hudden and Dudden and Donald O'Neary

There's a "silver lining in every cloud" as Donald O'Neary turns every misfortune his two neighbours can engineer into gold coins. Against the background of the Irish countryside, the customary "rich but dumb" characters meet their match in the "poor but crafty" hero. The story introduces the student to our rich multicultural background through the exploration of folklore of one of the peoples that make up Canada's cultural mosaic.

Part 25 · Jan 1, 1978

Canada Vignettes: Fort Prince of Wales

A Canada Vignette giving a humorous animated version of the history of Fort Prince of Wales from its construction to its capture by the French.

Part 26 · Apr 14, 1978

Canada Vignettes: Onions and Garlic: A Hebrew Fable

This animated short tells a humourous Hebrew folk tale about a man's venture to introduce onions to a far away kingdom and a disreputable man's attempt to exploit that.

Part 27 · Jun 1, 1978

Canada Vignettes: Acadian Quadrille

A short history of one of the traditional dances of Acadia--the quadrille.

Part 28 · Sep 22, 1978

Canada Vignettes: Sodbusters

A Canadian prairie farm family has a tough beginning on their new farm.

Part 29 · Jan 1, 1979

Canada Vignettes: December Lights

Animated film of a traditional Franco-Manitoban tale that resembles the story of the first Christmas.

Part 30 · Jan 1, 1979

Canada Vignettes: Alouette

A story about two symbolic characters who sway to the song Alouette.

Part 31 · Jan 1, 1979

Canada Vignettes: Moccasins

Close-ups of fine detail of the ancient skill of quillwork embroidery--brightly coloured geometric designs on high-ankled, Seneca-type moccasins. These moccasins are over one hundred years old, from the fabled Speyer Collection that was repatriated from Germany by the National Museum of Man in 1975.

Part 32 · Jan 1, 1979

Canada Vignettes: Dance

The metamorphosis of a map of Canada into human forms who share the natural resources to the rhythm of a dance.

Part 33 · Jan 1, 1979

Canada Vignettes: Riverdale Lion

A visual interpretation of the poem "Riverdale Lion" by Canadian poet and essayist John Robert Colombo.

Part 34 · Jan 1, 1979

Canada Vignettes: Instant French

This film promotes, in the best K-Tel tradition, a new device used to speak French.

Part 35 · Jan 1, 1979

Canada Vignettes: Woolly Mammoth

An animated film showing a woolly mammoth and its offspring. These animals lived on the Canadian tundra over ten thousand years ago.

Part 36 · Jan 1, 1979

Canada Vignettes: Wop May

This short animated film is about Wop May, one of Canada's leading bush pilots in the 1920s.

Part 37 · Jan 1, 1979

Canada Vignettes: The Egg

An egg desperately tries to prevent being hatched. In this animated short from the Canada Vignette series, learn how societies in evolution are often in danger of self-destruction.

Part 38 · Jan 1, 1979

Canada Vignettes: Indian Pipe

This carved ritual pipe from the Plains First Nations culture depicts the act of creation, alive in stone, Mother Earth in the embrace of Father Sky. Integral to the all-important sacred ceremonies, this personal possession expresses in strong imagery the vigour and joy of life itself.

Part 39 · Jan 1, 1979

Canada Vignettes: Métis Coat

The decorative pattern style of a traditional Metis coat is explored.

Part 40 · Jan 1, 1979

Canada Vignettes: Inuit Pipe

In this animated short from the Canada Vignette series, the camera explores, in exquisite detail, the daily hunt, fishing scenes and children at play as etched in black on an ivory Inuit pipe.

Part 41 · Jan 1, 1979

Canada Vignettes: Unity Pole

This vignette shows the ceremonial totem-pole raising by the Nisgha Nation at Ayanish.

Part 42 · Jan 1, 1979

Canada Vignettes: Delta Plane

This film is about the emotions that can lead one to take that jump into space necessary for hang gliding with a Delta Plane.

Part 43 · Jan 1, 1979

Canada Vignettes: Bluenose 1921-1946

A short history of Canada's greatest sailing ship.

Part 44 · Jan 1, 1979

Canada Vignettes: Ma Chère Albertine

This short film from the Canada Vignettes series depicts the Montreal of 1905-1910 with hand-painted vintage postcards.

Part 45 · Mar 20, 1979

Canada Vignettes: Love on Wheels

This short fiction film tells the love story between a young anglophone and a young francophone who unite their destinies in roller skates.

Part 46 · Jun 1, 1979

Canada Vignettes: Log Driver's Waltz

A short illustrating Wade Hemsworth's folk song about a woman's admiration for the agility of her boyfriend, the log driver.

Part 47 · Jun 1, 1979

Canada Vignettes: Don Messer - His Land and His Music - Don Messer 1910-1973

One of six Canada Vignettes from the NFB production Don Messer - His Land and His Music, featuring one of the principal performers, Don Messer, who has since passed away.

Part 48 · Jun 1, 1979

Canada Vignettes: Don Messer - His Land and His Music - Marg Osburne 1927-1977 Pt. 1

One of six Canada Vignettes from the NFB production Don Messer - His Land and His Music, featuring one of the principal performers, Marg Osburne, who has since passed away.

Part 49 · Jun 1, 1979

Canada Vignettes: McIntosh

A vignette based on the story of John McIntosh, the Ontario developer of the McIntosh apple.

Part 50 · Jan 1, 1980

Canada Vignettes: Canada's Snowbirds

This installment in the Canada Vignettes series depicts the Canadian Forces Air Demonstration Aerobatics team at work.

Part 51 · Jan 1, 1980

Canada Vignettes: Calliope

A vignette on the travelling calliope (also known as steam organ), a musical instrument that produces sound by sending steam through large locomotive whistles.

Part 52 · Jan 1, 1980

Canada Vignettes: Dancing Dolls

An animated vignette. A lively dance of painted wooden dolls that twirl, swing and sway to gay music.

Part 53 · Jan 1, 1980

Canada Vignettes: Klondike Gold

This animated film illustrates the terrible journey, the back-breaking work, the exotic and gaudy city of Dawson, and the turmoil and triumphs of the 1898 Klondike gold rush.

Part 54 · Jan 1, 1980

Canada Vignettes: Arctic Mission

A team of divers assemble a big bubble in the Arctic Ocean.

Part 55 · Jan 1, 1980

Canada Vignettes: Arctic Seascape

A vignette exploring the depths of the Arctic Ocean.

Part 56 · Jan 1, 1980

Canada Vignettes: Angel of Death

A vignette about a 1912 fly-swatting contest organized by The Toronto Daily Star to draw attention to the danger posed to public health by flies. Through archival photographs and newspaper headlines the highlights of the contest are reviewed in a light, humorous manner. The winner, a determined young lady named Beatrice White, killed over 500 000 flies during the six-week contest and was dubbed the "Angel of Death" by the paper.

Part 57 · Jan 1, 1980

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.

Part 58 · Jan 1, 1981

Canada Vignettes: Countdown

This vignette illustrates the variety of professions, people and technical procedures required by the filmmaking process.

Part 59 · Jan 1, 1982

Canada Vignettes: Ice

Ice cutting on the St. Lawrence River in the 1860s is illustrated in song and animated graphics.

Part 60 · Jan 1, 1984

Canada Vignettes: Emergency Numbers

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

Part 61 · Jan 1, 1985

Canada Vignettes: Catapult Canada

This model-animation vignette takes a humorous look at the theme of transportation.

Part 62 · Jan 1, 1985

Canada Vignettes: Mussel Mud

A vignette using animation and live action to depict mussel farmers digging in the mud through the ice on bays and estuaries in Prince Edward Island.

Part 63 · Jan 1, 1985

Canada Vignettes: The Move

In this short documentary from the Canada Vignettes series, a Saskatchewan grain elevator is moved across the snow-covered prairie to a new home after nearly a half-century of use. The film follows the lifting and transporting of the 9-storey, 200-ton structure, and examines the feelings of the people as they witness the final passing of their town's one and only grain elevator.