On the 11th of August at 11 minutes past 11am, almost total darkness fell across Southern England and an eerie silence descended as the population gazed skyward at what was the last total solar eclipse of this millennium. A total solar eclipse is a breathtaking event and this documentary programme conveys that awesome feeling by exploring how and why eclipses happen. A mixture of computer-generated views from outer space, footage of eclipses throughout the 20th century (some taken as early as 1927) and original footage taken of this year's total solar eclipse (shot in Cornwall) make this programme a celebration of eclipse mania.
(narrator)
09 Jun 1992
After Saddam Hussein had the Kuwait Oil wells lit up, teams from all over the world fought those fires for months. They had to save the oil resources, as well as reduce air pollution. The different teams developed different techniques of extinguishing the fires. Man's emergency creativity can be seen at it's best.
15 Oct 1999
By land, by air, and by sea, viewers can now experience the struggle that millions of creatures endure in the name of migration as wildlife photographers show just how deeply survival instincts have become ingrained into to the animals of planet Earth. From the monarch butterflies that swarm the highlands of Mexico to the birds who navigate by the stars and the millions of red crabs who make the perilous land journey across Christmas Island, this release offers a look at animal instinct in it's purest form.
30 Jan 2000
Carl Johan De Geer remembers his old friend Lena Svedberg. He talks about how they used to make their magazine together, how beautiful but strange she drew and how bad she seemed to feel.
30 Jan 2016
Shadowlands is an animated short film about darkness that won't let go. About the constant fear that something terrible might happen. It describes a journey into the inner world and psyche of a young person in distress, a world far from "normal".
07 Jun 2021
Super-8 footage captured while filming Bergman Island. In voice-over, filmmaker Mia Hansen-Løve offers intimate reflections on her creative process on the island of Fårö and her relationship with Bergman and Swedish cinema.
12 May 1968
"Society is a carnivorous flower" - About activists in the student revolt in May 1968. Archive footage shows police entering the Sorbonne, street fighting, meetings and demonstrations. Many interviewees testify to police violence and abuses.
12 Mar 2024
A visual essay by filmmaker and critic David Cairns. Recorded for Arrow Video in 2023. Included as a special feature on the 2024 Limited Edition Blu-ray and DVD release of The Shootist.
01 Jan 1929
A walk through the landscapes of the province of Salamanca, Spain, as well as a testimony of the daily life and customs of its inhabitants.
11 Feb 2003
Shot on the Great Barrier Reef in Australia and in the Bahamas, Ocean Wonderland brings to you the amazing beauty of the many varieties of coral and the immense diversity of the marine life thriving there.
17 Nov 1943
An opening narration explaining that the film's purpose is to examine the "world strategy of food", in terms of its production, distribution and consumption. The film is then divided into three parts: "Food - As It Was", "Food - As It Is" and "Food - As It Might Be".
06 Feb 2009
Susana Barriga’s documentary, the illusion, begins with violence. A long shot reveals a man standing on a street corner, his features indiscernible in the night. He moves out of the camera’s line of vision, but the filmmaker, persistent, moves with him as the jostling of the camera marks her steps. As we learn moments later, the man in the distance is Susana’s father – and this is the clearest image of him we will have. Suddenly, an angry British man demands that Susana cease filming. Susana protests in heavily accented English, “He is my father!” Glimpses of a man’s torso are followed by blurred images as the camera spins rapidly over surfaces. The image cuts to black. A new male voice asks in carefully spaced out words if Susana would like him to call the police. When she doesn’t respond immediately, he speaks louder, as though volume would compensate for the language difference. She gives her name; she refuses the offer of an ambulance.
18 Nov 1950
Through the pattern of this film a ‘Test’ at Lord’s runs like a thread and a broadcast commentary on the match is imposed on the background of cricket as a game, a craft, an interest of a people, a piece of history. The craftsmen are shown who make the ball and the bat–that ‘fourth straight stick’ with which the batsmen defend ‘the other three’. The craftsmen are shown who play the game, from W. G. Grace in the ‘nets’ to D. G. Bradman and Denis Compton in the thread of the ‘Test’. The history of the game is epitomized in the Long Room shots at Lord’s and from there the camera moves to the village green; to the London side- street where the urchins play on a ‘bumping pitch’; to South Africa, and India, where in the ‘blinding light’ there is often ‘an hour to play and the last man in.
01 Jan 1983
Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon on Camera 1983
01 Jan 1989
In this short documentary, five black women talk about their lives in rural and urban Canada between the 1920s and 1950s. What emerges is a unique history of Canada’s black people and the legacy of their community elders. Produced by the NFB’s iconic Studio D.
01 Jan 1986
A 16mm anthology of experimental super 8 films by Derek Jarman, Michael Kostiff, Cerith Wyn Evans and John Maybury, with framing footage by Tim Burke of Brion Gysin using a dream machine. Jarman's contribution is a version of his 1977 Art and the Pose (aka Arty the Pose), refilmed at 3fps, with a musical soundtrack. Jarman planned The Dream Machine as a commemoration of William Burroughs and Gysin's 1982 visit to the UK, and received initial funding from the Arts Council in 1983, then rethought the project as a portmanteau film featuring Gysin alone. The production remained in limbo until 1986, when James Mackay obtained completion funding from the British Film Institute. (Since this film was released on VHS accompanied by Jarman's Broken English: Three Songs by Marianne Faithfull, T.G.: Psychic Rally in Heaven and Pirate Tape under the umbrella title The Dream Machine, synopses of this film have often muddled up its details with those of the earlier films. )
01 Mar 1998
The filmmaker's father and uncle, Norm and Stan, are third generation Japanese Americans. They are "all American" guys who love bowling, cards and pinball. Placed in the Amache internment camp as children during World War II, they don't think the experience affected them that much. But in the course of navigating the maze of her father's and uncle's pursuits while simultaneously trying to inquire about their past, the filmmaker is able to find connections between their lives now and the history that was left behind.
15 Oct 2012
It’s the opportunity of a lifetime for artist Phil Richards, who’s been commissioned to create Canada’s official portrait of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II for her Diamond Jubilee. Academy Award®-nominated filmmaker Hubert Davis follows Richards over months of painstaking preparations, as he works to capture Her Majesty’s likeness and spirit on canvas.
28 Feb 1899
Wilhelm II. visits a market place in Beirut, Lebanon.
28 Feb 1899
Wilhelm II. arrives in Haifa, Israel.
02 Jan 1964
This 1964 documentary returns to the battlefields where over 100,000 Canadian soldiers lost their lives in the First and Second World Wars. The film also visits cemeteries where servicemen are buried. Filmed from Hong Kong to Sicily, this documentary is designed to show Canadians places they have reason to know but may not be able to visit. Produced for the Canadian Department of Veteran Affairs by the renowned documentary filmmaker Donald Brittain. (NFB)