The Political Economy of Canada: From Free Trade to Boom-Bust Cycles

Free trade. Tariffs. Protectionism. Conflict between the Prime Minister of Canada and the President of the United States. It seems these issues are in the news on a daily basis in Canada. But what exactly has led to this, and aren’t we in fact repeating history? This blog post will discuss the Reckoning series, a detailed, complex, and fascinating look at the political economy of Canada, from pre-Confederation days right up until 1986. These five films are just as relevant today as when they were produced more than 30 years ago.

In 1987, when Canada’s economy was slowly recovering from the catastrophic recession of 1981, the NFB released a five-part series on the political economy of Canada. Co-written by brilliant political economist James Laxer, the Reckoning series would, throughout the course of its hour-long episodes, explain the history of Canada’s economic triumphs and failures, and the nature of the unique relationship with our sometimes-difficult neighbour to the south.

Laxer appears on camera throughout, whether it’s to chuckle at the hostile relationship between John Diefenbaker and John Kennedy or ponder why the oil boom of the 1970s was so devastating in the long run for Alberta. The series is complex but not beyond the layman’s comprehension. Although a great deal of material is discussed, Laxer makes sure it’s framed in terms we can understand.

Episode one of the series, The Rise and Fall of American Business Culture, describes just that—how economic power shifted away from the United States to places like Japan. Part of it is attributed to the adversarial model of the workplace found in the States. The Japanese management model preaches a kind of teamwork where everyone wins. At one point, we see President Reagan commenting that “if the US can trade with other nations on a level playing field, we can out-produce and out-sell anybody, anywhere in the world.” It seems to me I’ve heard that somewhere recently! Laxer and other economists point to the lack of long-term planning in the USA as part of the reason it cannot right its economic ship.

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Episode two, Shift Change, deals with automation and more specifically how it has devastated the steel industry in towns like Hamilton, Ontario. Laxer draws parallels with the Industrial Revolution in Great Britain with all its horrors, including the use of child labour, supposedly in the national interest. Laxer points out that new technology has changed, and will change, the labour landscape, whether we are ready for it or not.

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Riding the Tornado, episode three, deals with the cost (mainly in human terms) of boom-bust cycles. Using the example of Alberta’s oil boom and subsequent bust in the 1970s and early 1980s, Laxer shows that in these situations, it’s always the people who pay. Broken marriages, foreclosures, alcohol abuse, domestic violence. All of these are by-products of boom-bust economies. Laxer says that Canada’s resource-based economy has always featured boom-bust cycles, going back to the fur trade. Using the example of the possible oil boom in Newfoundland, he contemplates whether perhaps there’s a better way, one that does not so often end up devastating people’s lives.

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Probably the most enjoyable episode is number four, In Bed with an Elephant, which takes a look at the relationships between Canadian prime ministers and American presidents throughout the years. Did you know that John Kennedy referred to John Diefenbaker as “the old SOB?” (This was partly due to Canada trading with Cuba and China, countries that the Americans considered to be enemies at the time.) It makes the current Trump-Trudeau spat seem tame by comparison. Throughout the history of our country, prime ministers have tried very hard to walk the fine line between negotiating a free trade agreement with the Americans and protecting Canadian values, fearing too much foreign ownership in Canada and too much protectionism on the part of our neighbours. In either case, it has always been a difficult relationship to manage.

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The final episode, At the Crossroads, looks at the future of Canada’s economy (as it appeared in 1986) and the fears about the upcoming free trade talks with the USA. As we’ve seen, many of these fears were unfounded, but at the time there was genuine concern that free trade would destroy the Canadian way of life and our cultural industries. Canada is compared to France and Sweden, and the role of government in a free-market economy is discussed.

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This fascinating series took the pulse of the Canadian economy at the time. Some of the events it predicted did not come true, but nonetheless Reckoning offers an engrossing lesson in economics and history. One thing it did not predict was the economic rise of China (Japan seems to be Laxer’s example of choice), but how could they have seen that coming at the time?

One last bit of intriguing information concerns the broadcast of the series on Canadian television. The CBC refused to air it, feeling it was not balanced enough. This angered the NFB, as producers felt that the CBC was engaging in censorship. Reckoning had to be shown on a patchwork of educational TV networks throughout Canada, including TV Ontario, the Knowledge Network (BC), Access Alberta and the Atlantic Satellite Network. Some PBS border stations also carried the show.

I invite you to watch this riveting series. It will give you a better understanding of where we came from, and put the current economic squabbles in much-needed perspective.

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« Kanehsatake, 270 years of resistance », 25 years later

Mobilize! NFB Puts Truth & Reconciliation Onscreen

“Stories are wondrous things. And they are dangerous,”  says Thomas King.

King knows a thing or two about storytelling and its cultural clout. Born to a Cherokee father and Greek/German mother, he has shed sharp new light on Indigenous experience with novels like Truth and Bright Water and Green Grass, Running Water and groundbreaking radio like The Dead Dog Café Comedy Hour.

With The Inconvenient Indian: A Curious Account of Native People in North America, published in 2012, he delivers an impassioned counter-narrative to official history, a lively work of non-fiction that the late Ojibwe novelist Richard Wagamese compared to the writings of Mark Twain, calling it “essential reading for everyone who cares about Canada and who seeks to understand Native people, their issues and their dreams.”

A film adaptation of The Inconvenient Indian — currently in the works at the Ontario Studio — is one of over 30 Indigenous-driven projects that are either in development, production or current release across the NFB’s various studios. Ranging from futuristic VR to a personal reflection on the shooting death of Colten Boushie, they form the linchpin of the NFBs three-year Indigenous Action Plan launched in June 2017.

When the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) released its final report in 2015, Judge Murray Sinclair and his fellow commissioners made it clear that any genuine reckoning with the legacy of residential schooling, and the broader history of Canada’s internal colonialism, required a long-term commitment on the part of Canadians and Canadian institutions, and their report included a sweeping call to action — 94 specific recommendations addressing a wide range of social and political players.

The commissioners identified a critical role for artists and for institutions concerned with cultural production and public memory: “Creative expression can play a vital role in this national reconciliation, providing alternative voices, vehicles, and venues for expressing historical truths and present hopes.” As a public producer and distributor, founded with a mandate to reflect Canada in all its complexity to Canadians and the world, the NFB heard the call and is now one year into a comprehensive plan towards institutional transformation, aimed at achieving equity for Indigenous creators, employees, partners and audiences.

The NFB’s Indigenous Action Plan covers all areas of operations – from hiring and distribution to library information systems, where an effort is underway to revise outdated colonial terminology and concepts. Highlights include a commitment to achieving representational parity in staffing by 2025, the development of new protocols for working with Indigenous partners and subjects, and a formal commitment to allocating no less than 15 percent of all production to Indigenous filmmakers and storytellers. Here are some Indigenous-directed stories and projects currently in the works.

In Release:

• Anishinaabe filmmaker Lisa Jackson is at ease in a range of genres and with Biidaaban: First Light, a VR project that premiered at the 2018 Tribeca Festival in April, she collaborated with artist Mathew Borrett to conjure up a futuristic Toronto, recast in light of its original Indigenous languages and knowledge. A mentoring director with the NSI’s IndigiDocs Program, Jackson won the Alanis Obomsawin Best Documentary award at imagineNATIVE 2017 with Indictment: The Crimes of Shelly Chartier, co-directed with Shane Belcourt. Produced by Rob McLaughlin and Dana Dansereau at the Digital Studio.

In Production:

• Addiction has a long and painful legacy in many Indigenous communities, a legacy rooted in Canada’s colonial history.  Elle-Máijá Tailfeathers’ feature doc Kiimaapiipitsin is an honest and unconditional love letter to her people, the Kanai First Nation in Alberta, past, present, and future.  Opiates and alcohol have had a devastating impact on the community and Kiimaapiipitsin presents a portrait of a people who are actively seeking radically new solutions to an old problem. What would happen if Indigenous communities were to implement harm reduction models? As Elle-Máijá’s mother, Dr. Esther Tailfeathers says, “Kiimaapiipitsin means ‘to take care of each other’. This is our harm reduction.” In production at the North West Studio. David Christensen is producing.

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• When the Winnipeg Aqueduct was completed it 1919, it allowed water to be carried from Shoal Lake to the growing city. But its construction has lead to decades of hardship for the people of the Shoal Lake 40 First Nation, culminating in their isolation on an artificial island, where inhabitants have been under a boil-water advisory for nearly 20 years. Having lobbied long and hard for a road, the people of SL40 are now preparing for big changes. With Freedom Road, a series of shorts currently in production at the North West Studio, hometown filmmaker and activist Angelina McLeod is documenting the process from the inside. Alicia Smith is producing.

• A co-production between Toronto’s 90^th Parallel Productions and the NFB Ontario Studio, The Inconvenient Indian is being directed by Métis/Algonquin filmmaker and activist Michelle Latimer, whose many credits include Nuuca, which she co-produced through own company Streel Film and Field of Vision, with Laura Poitras and Charlotte Cook as fellow executive producers; and Nimmikaage (She Dances for People), an inventive mashup crafted from NFB archival footage. “Michelle was coming off Rise, a groundbreaking series on Indigenous activism around the world,” says NFB producer Justine Pimlott, “and we all agreed she’d be perfect for this project.” Jesse Wente, recently appointed director of Canada’s newly established Indigenous Screen Office, is creative producer. Stuart Henderson is producing for 90th Parallel, with Gordon Henderson as executive producer.

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• The all too brief life of Jordan River Anderson has inspired new work from Alanis Obomsawin, the 52^nd film in an extraordinary career that has paved the way for Indigenous filmmakers in Canada and around the world. Born with a genetic disorder, Anderson was forced to spend his entire life inside a hospital, denied the right to live at home in the Norway House Cree Nation because of jurisdictional bickering between federal and provincial authorities over the costs of the specialized equipment needed for him to live at home. His life and legacy sparked a movement called Jordan’s Principle and child-first legislation aimed at ensuring equitable access to treatment and support for First Nations children and their families. With this film Obomsawin continues her cycle on children’s’ rights, a series that includes We Can’t Make the Same Mistake Twice (2016) and Our People Will Be Healed (2017). Obomsawin is directing and producing.

• Délia Gunn and Évelyne Papatie, two young Anishnabe directors who’ve made award-winning films through the Wapikoni mobile studio, are creating short work for web distribution as part of Le projet des 5 courts. A partnership between the Val-d’Or-based 08 Cinéma indépendant (Serge Bordeleau, producer) and the NFB (Colette Loumède and Nathalie Cloutier, producers).

• Born and raised in La Ronge, Saskatchewan, Janine Windolph grew up eating food from the land but her move to the city introduced a southern diet of processed food. With After the Thaw, the Atikemak-Woodland Cree/German artist and educator brings her two sons north to learn traditional life-sustaining skills — hunting, fishing and foraging — from their grandmother who has herself recently returned to the land. Jon Montes is producing.

• Only recently rediscovered in the NFB vaults, the short film Loon Lake was produced by the historic Indian Film Crew, the NFB’s first all-Indigenous production unit, formed in 1968 within the framework of Challenge for Change. With Loon River, in production at the North West Studio, the Cree/Lakota filmmaker/producer Cory Generoux returns to the community to give the film its first public screening in fifty years. David Christensen is producing.

• Cree filmmaker/academic Tasha Hubbard turns her gaze on the death of Colten Boushie and subsequent acquittal of Gerald Stanley, and the history of Treaty 6 Territory in Life and Death of the Prairies, currently in production at the North West Studio. Birth of a Family, her remarkable reparative film on the Sixties Scoop, made in collaboration with journalist Betty Ann Adam, premiered at Hot Docs in 2017 and won a Special Jury Prize at imagineNative. Jon Montes is producing in co-production with Downstream Documentary Productions.

In Development:

• With My Brother’s Story, in development at the BC & Yukon Studio, veteran Cree/Métis filmmaker Loretta Todd is tracing the trajectory of a fractured sibling bond against the backdrop of modern Indigenous history. The winner of several Lifetime Achievement Awards, Todd has created distinctive documentary work like Hands of History (1994) and Kainayssini Imanistaisiwa: The People Go On (2003). Selwyn Jacob is producing.

• With Nin, auass/ Moi, L’enfant, a feature doc in development in the French Documentary Studio, Abenaki director Kim Obomsawin is charting twelve months in the lives of four young people from different Indigenous community. Key inspiration is Nicolas Philibert’s 2012 feature doc Être et avoir, a beautifully observed film of life in a rural French school. Colette Loumède is producing. Obomsawin’s credits include Ce silence qui tue, a 2018 release from the Indigenous-run Wabanok Productions that challenges official indifference to the issue of missing and murdered Indigenous women. 

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• Also at the BC & Yukon Studio, Chris Auchter is revisiting a pivotal event in his community’s history, retrieving footage shot for a 1969 documentary entitled This Was the Time in order to retell the story from a Haida perspective. The film centres on a watershed moment in Haida Masset where for the first time after more than half a century of colonial suppression, a totem pole was carved and raised in the context of a potlatch ceremony. The carver featured in the film is a young Robert Davidson, today a globally renowned artist. “There’s so much positive change that can be credited to that event,” says the Haida Gwaii-born Auchter, whose most recent work The Mountain of SGaana was named Best Film for Young Audiences at the 2017 Ottawa International Animation Festival. Selwyn Jacob is producing. 

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• A multidisciplinary creation lab initiated by Michèle Bélanger and housed in French Program, Déranger invites Indigenous artists to create work that both disrupts and enhances public space. The Montreal incarnation, mounted in collaboration with the Oboro Centre and Wapikoni, gave birth to the immersive installation Kushapetshekan/Kosapitcikan, exhibited earlier this year at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. Déranger now moves to Winnipeg where the NFB is partnering with On Screen Manitoba and Video Pool.

• At a time when Indigenous women were arguably the most disenfranchised members of Canadian society, Mary Two-Axe Earley, pictured below, fearlessly took on the nation’s most powerful political figures, determined to secure basic rights for Indigenous women and children. Kanien’kehá:ka (Mohawk) filmmaker Courtney Montour, who also hails from Kahnawake — the town where Mary had to fight for the right to be buried — is currently in development in the Quebec & Atlantic Studio on a documentary investigation of Two-Axe’s life and legacy. Kat Baulu is producing.

 

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• “As Inuit we’re not frightened to mix things up,” says Elisapie Isaac, a musician and filmmaker whose credits include the lyrical NFB release If the Weather Permits. “We have a very eclectic culture; not one that holds us back but rather a culture in transition.” For her latest project Runaway Girl, in development at the French-language animation studio, she has teamed up with renowned visual artist Marc Séguin. Marc Bertrand is producing.

• Also in the works in French Animation Studio is Symphonie d’une attaque nordique, a futuristic short in which Caroline Monnet imagines the Indigenous Peoples of the North uniting against a supernatural invading army. A visual artist of Algonquin ancestry who has exhibited around the globe, Monet made the exhilarating archive-based short Mobilize for the NFB Souvenir Series. “I want to speak about a people moving forward, a people who are mobilizing themselves,” she says of that film. Julie Roy is producing.

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• Métis filmmaker Cara Mumford harnesses the narrative potential of interactive technologies with Red Card, a futurist web-based game in development in the NFB Digital Studio. Continuing an exploration she began with the short film Red Card World: The Tree, she evokes the collapse of western society, a scenario where Indigenous communities offer survival with life-saving ‘supertrees.’ Red Card was the winner of the NFB/imagineNATIVE’s 2016 interactive partnership program. Produced by Dana Dansereau.

• With Meneath (Island), an AR project in development in the Animation Studio, Métis artist Terril Calder is exploring the seven deadly sins of Christianity alongside the seven sacred lessons of Indigenous knowledge. Calder’s work has received Honorable Mentions at Sundance and the Berlinale, and her animated short Choke, co-created with Michelle Latimer, made TIFF’s top ten list in 2011. She was the recipient of the 2016 Ontario Arts Council’s K.M Hunter Media Arts Award. Produced by Jelena Popović.

• Amanda Strong’s inventive animation has drawn comparisons to Tim Burton, and when Alanis Obomsawin was given the Toronto Film Critics’ 2016 Clyde Gilmour Technicolor Award, she was so impressed by Strong’s extraordinary short Four Faces of the Moon that she bequeathed the cash prize to the Vancouver-based filmmaker, acknowledging Strong’s vital contribution to contemporary Indigenous cinema. Strong is currently developing Wheetago War, based on a cannibal story by Tłı̨chǫ writer Richard Van Camp, in the English Animation Studio. Produced by Maral Mohammadian. Below: Amanda Strong with Alanis Obomsawin and Jesse Wente, Director of the Indigenous Screen Office, at 2017 Toronto Film Critics gala, photo courtesy of anishinabeknews.ca

Indigenous Cinema: Free streaming of over 200 titles

Since 1968 the NFB has produced close to 300 titles by First Nations, Métis and Inuit directors from across Canada. Over 200 of these titles are available on Indigenous Cinema, an online platform launched earlier this year. The curated collection includes trailblazing historic films like Willie Dunn’s The Ballad of Crowfoot, the first film made by the Indian Film Crew, alongside landmark docs like Alanis Obomsawin’s Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistances and a host of new titles.

In honour of June 21, National Indigenous Peoples Day, the new platform is showcasing Kanehsatake as well as a quartet of recent releases: Tasha Hubbard’s Birth of a Family, Louise BigEagle’s To Wake Up the Lakota Language along with Marie Clements’ stirring musical doc The Road Forward and Chris Auchter’s animation hit.

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Visit Beyond 94, a site created by the Indigenous Unit at the CBC, to get a sense of the progress Canadians have made – and the work we still need to do – in meeting the TRC’s 94 calls to action.

Banner image: Wave a Red Flag, directed by Adam Garnet Jones.

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Indigenous Action Plan: One Year Later

A year ago, we launched our 3-year Indigenous Action Plan. We figure it’s time for an update. In an announcement made on June 21, Claude Joli-Coeur, the head of the NFB, reported on our progress to date and outlined key actions for the year ahead. The announcement was timed to coincide with National Indigenous Peoples Day.

The Indigenous Action Plan was designed to respond to the work and recommendations of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC) and address longstanding concerns about systemic inequalities in the current Canadian production landscape.

Indigenous Action Plan first-year highlights

We have 35 Indigenous-directed projects in development or production, representing 9.5% of overall production spending. The goal is 15% by 2020.

Almost 900 screenings took place as part of the Aabiziingashi (Wide Awake) Indigenous Cinema Tour. We worked with TIFF, APTN, imagineNATIVE, the Canadian Commission for UNESCO, and local partners.

We added a new Indigenous Cinema section to NFB.ca, offering more than 200 new and classic Indigenous titles. New films will be added annually.

We have a new program in development for students, educators, and other learners called the Indigenous Voices and Reconciliation (IVR) Learning Program. It will launch in 2019.

We’re supporting an initiative led by imagineNATIVE to create screen protocols for working with Indigenous filmmakers, subjects, and stories.

We’ve made an agreement with APTN to pool efforts and expertise in developing protocols for production, distribution, and archive management, as well as implementing best practices for hiring and training. The goal is to strengthen relationships with Indigenous creators, staff, and partners.

We’re adopting an Indigenous Materials Classification Schema developed by Indigenous librarians to catalogue our online collection.

Close to 50% of NFB staff have participated in Indigenous cultural awareness activities, with training for all staff to be completed by 2019–2020.

 

Partnering on the creation of the Indigenous Screen Office.

Indigenous Action Plan in Action

Some of the feature docs we released this past year include Alanis Obomsawin’s Our People Will Be Healed, Marie Clements’ The Road Forward, and Tasha Hubbard’s Birth of a Family. In terms of short films, we also released Jay Cardinal Villeneuve’s Holy Angels and Asinnajaq’s Three Thousand. We currently have over 30 Indigenous films in either development or production.

Aside from these milestones, we are also continuing our initiatives in the areas of education, community engagement, and online accessibility. For more information, check out the full press release. INSERT LINK

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Back Market: The Refurbished Super Market

Back Market offers refurbished products by certified professionals.

Back Market is one of the most sleekly designed websites featuring refurbished tech products. Even though the site only offers refurbished products—that is, pre-owned items that have been tuned up before being reintroduced back on to the market—it still feels like a legitimate Apple or Samsung store. That’s likely due to the site’s clever copywriting as well as its UI design. Unlike other sites offering comparable products, Back Market seems more trustworthy, as if the products are actually going to work when you get them home. This is also likely due to their comprehensive FAQ section and a dedicated customer service team on staff.

Although most people think of old smart phones when they hear the word “refurbished,” Back Market makes it clear that they offer a wide variety of refurbished items. In addition to smart phones, you can also find TVs, tablets, laptops, and desktop computers on the site. Because all of the items are pre-owned, they tend to be much cheaper than what you’d be able to buy them for at a new retail price. Because they’re refurbished, however, they’re at least a bit more likely to work well. Back Market also has a good warranty plan. If you’re looking for a cheaper alternative to buying a new tech product, Back Market is worth browsing.

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Crown: Dating Game

Crown is a dating game competition on your phone.

The Bachelor, On Your Phone

Many novelty apps with a unique twist on the classic swipe left / swipe right have come and gone since Tinder created the technology and laid the groundwork for the new era of online dating. Crown, a new app created by the Match Group, which actually owns Tinder as well as Match.com and OKCupid, is different and exciting enough that it may work its way into the mainstream. The app works almost like an episode of The Bachelor: each day, 16 people compete against each other to be your match. Rather than simply swiping left or right on individuals, you decide who you like better in a bracket-style competition that ends with four final “winners.”

Play The Dating Game

The downside of Crown’s approach, of course, is that you may complete your dating game and then still have no one to talk to. The four winners of your competition can choose to talk to you or “pass,” which means that you might not be going on a date with the winner of your daily game just because you crowned them victorious. Still, the app presents a fun, and most importantly, unique, twist on the concept of dating apps. If you’re currently in the dating pool and sick of swiping through the same old apps, consider giving Crown a try.

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Animation Techniques: Cut-Out

This new series highlights different kinds of animation, explaining the techniques, and sharing some of our best examples. This week, we’re focusing on cut-out animation.

The NFB has a rich, storied history with animation. Since almost its inception, it has bred world-famous animators, masters of their craft who produced the classics we still enjoy today. The Board has a global reputation for being a producer of some of the world’s best animation, and a handful of Oscars to prove it.

One of the secrets of its success is diversity. The Board is like an incubator for new artists, and new ideas. We don’t specialize in one or two techniques – we try ‘em all. This week, we’re focusing on cut-out animation.

One of the earliest forms of animation, or maybe even the earliest form of animation, cut-out animation has stood the test of time. It’s exactly as its name describes – animation formed using cut-outs of materials such as paper, card stock, fabric, or whatever, set against a two-dimensional background. From there, it’s more like stop-motion, as the objects are moved, then shot, moved, then shot, etc., etc.

We’ve got a nice selection of cut-out animation, and I went to three of our in-house authorities to see what their favourites were. I hit up Michael Fukushima, executive producer of the animation studio; Albert Ohayon, our collection analyst (or expert, as we call him); and Kate Ruscito, our social media strategist and all-around animation enthusiast. These are their picks.

Le Merle

This classic from Norman McLaren and Evelyn Lambart is a positively mesmerizing film that will have you tapping your toe and bobbing your head. If you think about it fleetingly, it’s so simple – just a few cut out shapes moving against a couple of different backgrounds set to the tune of a French folk song. But when you really think about it, so much intricate work must have gone into each and every shot. It’s mind-boggling. And a sheer pleasure to watch.

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My Financial Career

True confession: Until I sat down to write this post, I had no idea that this film was done with paper cut-out. It’s one of my favourites, and I’ve seen it a bunch of times, but I had to go back and re-watch it. Then, of course, I just felt like an idiot. Anyway, enjoy the delightful Stephen Leacock tale of a young man who walks into a bank…

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Mr. Frog Went A-Courting

Evelyn Lambart makes another appearance on this list, which should come as no surprise since cut-out was one of her most commonly-used techniques. And she was good. Once again, we’ve got rollicking imagery set to a jaunty folk tune. And once you get past the whole inter-species courtship thing, this little film is a really good time.

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The Hungry Squid

This film is not like the others in that while it is cut-out animation, its done digitally. The effect is pretty cool – very lively and surreal. The story itself features young Dorothy, a girl who’s going through a tough time, and finding it hard to find someone who believes her. Yes, it’s a tall tale about a homework-eating Squid, but come on – how often do you get to see a giant squid on a rampage?

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Bug Off (or 5 Films About Bugs)

Are there any creatures on earth more maligned and misunderstood than bugs? Though often dismissed as nothing but pests, bugs are, in actuality, amazing creatures and a vital part to our eco-system. Luckily for us, however, our busy worker bees here at the NFB colony have found a swarm of films to help better educate us about these astounding arthropods.

So, relax and curl up in a cocoon made of blankets as we present to you 5 super fly films about all things creepy and crawly.

Four Wings and a Prayer

Our first film on this list is this documentary about one of the most beautiful animals on earth: the Monarch butterfly. Based on the book by Sue Halpern, this doc takes us across an awesome adventure of triumph and survival, as the Monarchs make their annual three thousand kilometre long pilgrimage from their homes in Canada, over mountains, through storms and perilous dangers all the way to their migrational wintering grounds deep in the mountains of Mexico.

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Queen of the Sun: What Are the Bees Telling Us?

“If bees die out, man will only have four years of life left on earth.”

– usually attributed to Albert Einstein.

Indeed, unless you’re Nicholas Cage in a terrible re-make of Wickerman, you’re probably worried about Colony Collapse Disorder, which has caused the number of bees on Earth to drastically decline. In this documentary, the viewer is introduced to  various philosophers and scientists, all of whom are investigating this mysterious phenomenon. Is there a solution? Watch and find out.

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Entomology

From the Ancient Greek word entomon, meaning “insect” and logia, meaning “the study of,” Entomology is, in short, the science of bugs! The branch of biology concerned with all things insect, this short under 5-minute documentary provides a great introduction for any aspiring little scientist or anyone interested in bugs.

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Black Fly

A charming animation based on the folksong of the same title, this short film is written and sung by Canadian singer Wade Hemsworth, with back-up vocals by the McGarrigle sisters. It follows the misadventures of Hemsworth himself as he battles the ancient, bone pickin’ arch-enemy of all outdoors people in Northern Ontari-o: the blackfly! A fun earworm you’ll be humming all day.

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Science at the Top of the World – Field Work: Studying Insects in Ivvavik National Park

Take a trip to Ivvavik National Park, with arthropod aficionado and bug expert Jason Straka. Part of the Science and the Top of the World series, which spotlights different Arctic eco-systems throughout Canada, this particular vignette is all about the important ecological role insects have as signifiers of the natural balance.

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Vanido: Your Personal Singing Coach

Vanido teaches you how to sing.

Learn To Sing

Vanido is a free iOS app that gives fun and engaging vocal lessons. When you first sign up for an account with Vanido, the app has you test out your vocal range by singing the lowest note you can reach as well as the highest note you can reach. It then personalizes a lesson plan for you in your register. The course progresses in a similar manner to DuoLingo, starting with the basics and continuing on to more complex lessons in an app with an easy-to-follow, visually-appealing design. The app is designed so that people with no singing experience at all can learn how to better use their voices, and it truly is that intuitive.

Guitar Hero, For Your Voice

Vanido’s vocal lessons operate in a manner similar to Guitar Hero, so those who are accustomed to playing that game or similar games should have an easy time picking up on it. Notes scroll across the screen, and your goal is to get your voice to match them. The iPhone’s microphone integrates surprisingly well with the app, picking up your voice without much lag time. Even for a complete novice, it’s fun to be able to watch your voice climb to different heights and drop to lows you never knew you could reach before. It might not make you the greatest singer of all time, but Vanido is a great educational tool for those that want to explore the range of their own singing voice.

Vanido: Your Personal Singing Coach posted first on http://film-streamingsweb.blogspot.com

Ghosts ‘N Guns: AR Endless Shooter

Ghosts ‘N Guns is an AR endless shooter arcade game.

Bring Ghosts To Your Room

Pokémon Go proved that AR technology could improve the mobile gaming experience. Since the launch and subsequent viral spread of that game, however, there haven’t been tons of AR success stories on the market. Ghosts ‘N Guns, like Pokémon Go, is another example of how fun the simple addition of AR can be. It accomplishes that feat, however, in a much less complicated and easier-to-play manner. The mobile app, made by Turbo Chili and available on iOS only, transforms your real surrounding environment into the backdrop for an arcade-style game. It’s something you can easily play a few minutes and come back to later, but it’s still extremely entertaining.

Challenge The Bosses

Ghosts ‘N Guns lets you drop a “portal” anywhere in the space in which you’re playing. Ghosts then emerge from the portal and surround you. It’s your task to shoot all of them down. As you progress through the levels, the ghosts become more numerous and difficult to fight. There are also little challenges and bosses that emerge after clearing levels. The game can be disorienting, because there’s a radar in the top right corner that tracks ghosts that can literally surround you. In that sense, it does require a fair bit of movement. Still, Ghosts ‘N Guns is an easy, yet fun game with re-playability value.

Ghosts ‘N Guns: AR Endless Shooter posted first on http://film-streamingsweb.blogspot.com