Nation - un huis clos avec Lucien Bouchard

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.

Via archival footage and a vintage yet unserious style, this is the hot-shot, right-wing, weird and wild story of Canada's Progressive Conservatives, told through the journey of 18th Prime Minister Brian Mulroney's career as a Tory hopeful to the day of his inauguration.

Made shortly after the referendum on Quebec's independence was held, this documentary illustrates what the politicians' promises were and how the population did not really care nor truly understand what was really at stake, even though just about everyone had an opinion on the subject.

A documentary about Canadian music icon David Foster.

Every year in Quebec, 25,000 reports of children being beaten, sexually abused or abandoned are retained by the Directorate of Youth Protection. And nearly 40% of babies who die in the province to die because of the violence of their parents. This explains the fact that nearly 30,000 children are supported by the DPJ until the age of 18. But this government agency is in a position to meet the needs of young people? Journalist and documentary filmmaker Paul Arcand presents the testimonies of children and adult victims of abuse of all kinds, and interviews politicians, social workers and members of the judiciary on their perception of the problem. In addition, Arcand denounces the carelessness of a bureaucratic system that does not always seem to be concerned about the well-being of those for whom they are responsible.

BREAKING POINT brings viewers back to those tense, critical moments when Canada's future as a country was at stake.

In October 1970, members of the Front de Libération du Québec (FLQ) kidnapped and murdered Minister Pierre Laporte, part of an unprecedented crisis in Quebec. Fifty years later, Félix Rose tries to understand what could have led his father and uncle to commit such crimes. Thanks to his uncle Jacques, who agrees for the first time to speak on the subject, and to the traces left by his father Paul, he revives the heritage of a Quebec working class family. The fruit of ten years of research, Les Rose allows us to revisit a time and people that we knew through clichés, and gives a glimpse of the experiences of a rebellious youth and the crimes that followed.

Examines the devastating effect that overfishing has had on the world's fish populations and argues that drastic action must be taken to reverse these trends. Examines the imminent extinction of bluefin tuna, brought on by increasing western demand for sushi; the impact on marine life resulting in huge overpopulation of jellyfish; and the profound implications of a future world with no fish that would bring certain mass starvation.

In 1995, Quebec faced a harrowing choice: remain part of Canada or establish itself as a separate country. The future of a nation and a lifelong dream were at stake in this referendum. Through interviews and analysis, journalists Antoine Robitaille and Dave Noël delve into the secret strategies, fierce rivalries, and political maneuvering of both sides.

From coast to coast, from St. John's, Newfoundland to Vancouver, British Columbia, Jacques Godbout films a documentary chronicle of the political turnaround that was to follow the Meech Lake Accord. Following the Meech referendum, Quebec and Canada found themselves at an impasse after a long and ultimately fruitless negotiation, various social and political actors spoke out. Their comments, linked to film clips on the lives of important Canadian politicians (Sir Georges-Étienne Cartier, John A. Macdonald, Louis-Joseph Papineau...), draw parallels between the speeches of yesterday and those of the post-Meech era.

Quebec, on the cusp of the 1960s. The province is on the brink of momentous change. Deftly selecting clips from nearly 200 films from the National Film Board of Canada archives, director Luc Bourdon reinterprets the historical record, offering us a new and distinctive perspective on the Quiet Revolution.

This documentary revisits the month of January 1998, which plunged the province of Québec into darkness. It looks back at the ice storm that dragged on for thirty-five long days, depriving thousands of Quebecers of electricity.

This film establishes a parallel between the 1970 electoral campaign in Québec and the 1936 campaign dominated by Maurice Duplessis. It shows the hope but also the uncertainty that existed in 1970. Had the Quiet Revolution really changed things in Québec? Was it possible that a new leader would emerge on the political scene? (NFB.ca)

Peter Watkins' global look at the impact of military use of nuclear technology and people's perception of it, as well as a meditation on the inherent bias of the media, and documentaries themselves.

With his charisma, his energy, his integrity - but also his faults - René Lévesque left an indelible mark in the collective imagination of Quebecers: that of a hero of a people. But how can we measure his legacy, 35 years after his death and 100 years after his birth? From Montreal to New Carlisle, L'Actualité journalist Guillaume Bourgault-Côté crosses Quebec to meet certain relatives, colleagues, experts and artists who rubbed shoulders with the man, literally and figuratively. Together, they try to identify what remains of René Lévesque. By traveling through Quebec, we will better understand the legacy left by René Lévesque 100 years after his birth, 35 years after his death: his role in the sovereignist movement, the development of public and economic policies, but also the strength of his personality, which still today arouses a feeling of deep attachment among the Quebec population, regardless of political allegiances. (Translated from French.)

Through never-before-released interviews, this documentary provides an opportunity to (re)discover Jean Lapierre: the colleague, the politician, the friend, and the family man. We follow his journey as a child growing up on the Magdalen Islands to becoming a well-known one-of-a-kind politician and commentator...to just before the March 2016 airplane crash that took his life.

Ronald Reagan said of his beloved Santa Barbara, California ranch, “No place before or since has ever given Nancy and me the joy and serenity it does.” President Reagan’s Rancho del Cielo, his home for nearly twenty-five years and the Western White House for eight, is a window into the soul of Ronald Reagan. But what if the Reagan Ranch had been lost? Future generations would have been robbed of the chance to visit the Ranch and “meet” the real Ronald Reagan. This videocassette is a tribute to the man and his ranch.

A look at November 15, 1976, the date the Parti Québécois seized power in the provincial elections, a victory that gave rise to an unprecedented outburst of joy at the Center Paul-Sauvé, a place where PQ sympathizers gathered.

A long and thoughtful look at those desperate days of October 1970, when Montréal awaited the outcome of FLQ terrorist acts. This film puts the October Crisis in the long perspective of history. Compiled from news and other films, it shows independence movements past and present, and their leaders; it reflects the mingled relief, dismay, defiance, when the Canadian army came to Montréal; and it shows how political leaders viewed the intervention.

October, 1995. The most important political event in recent Canadian history, the Quebec vote on sovereignty, is about to unfold. During the tense days leading up to the referendum for independence, 23 filmmakers from the NFB's English and French documentary studios take their cameras into the streets and homes of Quebeckers. Culled from 250 hours of footage, Referendum is an emotional portrait of a profoundly divided society. In a collage of powerful moments, the video recaptures the emotions of that time and measures them against today's political agenda. Implicit is the question: What next?