This episode of Ghost Towns of Canada explores Ireland's Eye, Newfoundland. Once an outport along the eastern sea board of Canada, Ireland's Eye could not survive the shifts accompanied Newfoundland's entry into Confederation and was emptied during the 1960s.
This story of Norwegian immigrant Bill Hakonson follows his life from a mistreated runaway youth on the prairies to his arrival in Dawson City where he built a new life in Canada's far north.
Mrs. Murakami: Family Album presents a moving portrayal of the treatment of Japanese-Canadians during and following World War II.
This episode of Ghost Towns of Canada explores Nordegg, Alberta where the discovery of coal deposits by German-Jewish businessman Martin Cohen occurred. His plan was to make Nordegg into a garden city, rather than a mining one. Due to circumstance involving the war, Martin Cohen was forced into exile, leaving Nordegg to became one of Alberta's largest mines.
In 1944, Charlie Post and Jimmy Dennis were both removed from their families to attend the Le Jac Indian Residential School. Just 10 years old, they never saw their families again. They share their experiences of event that illustrate why both men have spent a lifetime trying to overcome the impact of that traumatic day and the eight years that followed.
A working class mother breaks the constraints of sex and class to become a union organizer and strike leader for women workers during the most explosive labour confrontation in Canadian history - the Winnipeg General Strike of 1919.
This episode of Ghost Towns of Canada explores Ocean Falls, British Columbia. Ocean Falls was one of the province's best known pulp and paper towns until the mill was closed by the provincial governmet in the early 1980s due to the waning economy.
This documentary traces the struggle to find a practical route through the mountains from the fur-trading forts of the northern interior of British Columbia to the Pacific Ocean.
Pictures Don't Lie portrays traditional life in the Yukon through the black and white images of JJ Van Bibber, a prolific Métis photographer who travelled the interior with his family, hunting, trapping and surviving on the land.
POTLATCH...a strict law bids us dance looks at the Kwakwaka'wakw First Nations and the history of the potlatch.
Family relationships and traditional teachings of Indigenous people were severely disrupted by the Canadian Government and church-run Residential and Confessional schools from the late 1800s until well into the 20th century. The Power of the Spirit explores state-sanctioned attempts to “take the Indian out of the child” and the efforts Indigenous people embarked on in the 1950s and 60s to chart new grounds for education and spirituality based on traditional learning.
Director John Walker reflects on his complex relationship with Québec, charting the course of rapid change wrought by the Quiet Revolution: from the separatist movement, FLQ crisis and political referenda to the exodus of half a million people from Québec.
This bold documentary provides a humorous perspective on the threat of the Québec/Canada split.
This episode of Ghost Towns of Canada explores Rowley, Alberta, the town famous for its repeated revival.
This episode of Ghost Towns of Canada explores Sandon, British Columbia, a silver town in southeastern B.C. At its peak, Sandon was the alcohol, gambling and sex capital of Canada's own Wild West. Despite producing more wealth than the California, Klondike and Cariboo gold rushes combined, Sandon's silver mines would go into decline by the turn of the century.
Secret War: The Odyssey of the Suffield Volunteers is the story of four Canadian soldiers-four of more than two thousand-who between 1941 and 1945 volunteered to be `human guinea pigs', testing deadly mustard gas at a military camp in Suffield, Alberta.
This episode of Ghost Towns of Canada explores Silver Islet, Ontario where North America's richest silver ore was discovered. Silver mining began, as the town was constructed. Silver Islet flourished for about 20 years until production fell and the mine closed.
Small Pleasures is a unique film featuring three women (First Nations, Chinese and European) who use the pre-colonial trade language of Chinook Jargon to convey to each other complex ideas about feminist resistance in late 19th century Canada.
In 1899, seven thousand Doukhobors, members of a pacifist Christian sect, left Russia for Canada to escape persecution for their beliefs. Soul Communion looks at the lives and work of five Canadian Doukhobor artists and the ways in which they have chosen to express their heritage and customs.
The Spirit Wrestlers exposes the dramatic and troubling story of the century of Doukhobor life in Canada. It portrays successive governments' efforts to forcibly assimilate a unique, proud and stubborn group of Russian immigrants to this country.
If you had to walk out of your present life in 48 hours, possibly never to return, what would you take with you? What would you leave behind?
The history of Vancouver's Cambie (Connaught) Bridge is revealed through the explorations and memories of a young man.
In this second documentary from Series 1 of La Voix des Mechif, the essential need for land ownership to establish any form of jurisdiction is explored, along with how The Manitoba Act of 1870 allocating land to the Métis people failed them through the Scrip program exploited by both Church and State.
This tribute to the late Chief of the Tsleil-Waututh First Nation salutes his life, his achievements and his career as a Hollywood actor.
In this short drama starring Kate Bateman and Dr. David Suzuki, a young urban woman experiences the pain of loss, the power of hope and the value of forgiveness when she learns her newly inherited property in British Columbia was once a Japanese internment camp.