Teaching about healthy relationships with A Better Man

Steph Guthrie is the Impact Producer for A Better Man. She co-directed the film’s interactive companion, It Was Me, which won the inaugural Golden Sheaf Award for Digital Media at the 2018 Yorkton Film Festival. She also co-created the array of discussion kits and resources available on the film’s website, abettermanfilm.com.

“I never looked up at this school. I was always looking down,” marvelled Attiya Khan as she gazed around the corridors of the Ontario high school she had attended as a teenager. These corridors should have been a familiar sight, but Attiya was seeing them for the first time. Accompanying her on this visit was ex-boyfriend and former fellow student, Steve, whose daily abuse 25 years ago was the reason she had kept her eyes to the floor.

As co-director of A Better Man, a documentary co-produced by Intervention Productions and the National Film Board (NFB), Attiya Khan invites viewers along as she and Steve revisit the landmarks of their relationship to come to terms with his violence. A Better Man started a public conversation, earning accolades in Maclean’s, the New Yorker, and BuzzFeed, and making it Hot Docs’ “most-buzzed film” of their 2017 festival.

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Just in time for the new school year, the film team has released a free guide to support teachers and facilitators in using A Better Man as a resource for high school aged students, inside and outside the classroom. As the Impact Producer for Intervention Productions, I collaborated with interdisciplinary writers from the NFB and the Ontario Secondary School Teachers Federation (OSSTF) to draft the guide in fall of 2017. After a pilot in select schools and youth programs across Ontario and Manitoba in partnership with OSSTF, Klinic Community Health and the YMCA of Greater Toronto, we are excited to share the revised guide with educators and youth facilitators everywhere.

Attiya and Steve’s reckoning with their history provides a rich opportunity for learning about healthy and unhealthy relationships. Though they were just teens when they met, their story reflects distressing statistical realities about youth dating violence. According to LoveIsRespect.org, violent behaviour usually starts between the ages of 12 and 18, and girls and young women aged 16 to 24 are more likely to experience violence than women in any other age group.

The A Better Man high school learning guide is filled with resources to help facilitators build discussions around the film. Inside it they’ll find a vocabulary list, scene-by-scene prompts to spark conversation, a sample letter for parents, external resources, and service directories, as well as tips for responding to common student questions and concerns. These resources can help facilitators guide students in extrapolating from Attiya and Steve’s story to unpack complex topics like trauma, memory, bystander intervention, shame, and justice.

The guide offers four learning activities suitable for a wide range of subject areas, including Arts, Health and Physical Education, Language Arts, and Social Studies/Sciences (download the guide’s national curriculum connections here). One activity has students catalogue examples of non-physical abuse in the film and brainstorm possible bystander responses. Kinesthetic learners may benefit from the activity on emotional literacy, in which students analyze how different emotions can manifest in the body, and healthy and unhealthy ways of expressing them. An activity exploring the film’s depiction of violence against women and Attiya’s creative choices as a director is a natural entry point for students in Arts, Media Studies, and English. Courses that touch on conflict and justice, such as Family Studies or Law, may be the perfect environment for an activity that asks students what justice means to them by reflecting on a time they hurt a person they cared about.

As communities nationwide debate what schools should and shouldn’t teach youth about dating and relationships, many educators find it challenging to tackle these topics—and yet, they know we simply must. Every time I watch A Better Man with teachers, I hear their emotional reactions to the school scene, as they wonder which of their own students might not be able to look up at the corridors and fully engage with their learning. As Attiya’s eyes registered those hallways for the first time, more than two decades after the violence, she said quietly, “I don’t remember learning a thing.” That’s why we need to have these conversations in every classroom, school, and community.

Download the A Better Man high school learning guide here.

To watch A Better Man, activate your NFB CAMPUS subscription.

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#MyNFB : The Family That Dwelt Apart and My Introduction to the Joys of Unhappiness

Justine Vuylsteker embraces the magic of pinscreen animation

Saturday’s Playlist: Summer Fiction

Well, the time has finally come. It’s officially the last week of summer vacation. One more week until the kayaks are put away, the kids are back at school, and we start thinking about stews, soups, and comfy fall sweaters.

But before we bombard you with back-to-school madness and the return to regular life, we’ve got one more week of freedom. As such, we decided to focus our programming entirely on fiction films – some animated, some not – that we hope will entertain you in these final magical moments of summer.

Shyness

If you’re a fan of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, this animated short might come as a bit of a shock.

In this version, we trade horror for humour as the great doctor toils to create his monster… only to end up with one who’s too shy to be a real threat. This is a catastrophe, especially for someone like Frankenstein’s assistant, Trevor, who is highly concerned with keeping up appearances.

Commissioned to create a tall, scary monster complete with scars, Frankenstein is at a loss when his creation is more scared than scary. The doctor and his assistant run through a host of possible solutions to their problem, including a little sock-puppet therapy.

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Twice Upon a Time

Here’s an odd little film from the late 1970s that finds satire in the notion of a bilingual society. In the town of Stereoville, everyone doubles up so that there’s one English-speaking and one French-speaking person per team. Which, when you think about it, is actually the opposite of bilingualism.

Imagine the shock on the locals’ faces when a stranger comes to town. ALONE. One person who can speak two languages? UNHEARD OF!

Although very much a product of its time, the film does succeed in showing how bilingualism is an advantage, and not an obstacle to overcome.

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Blowhard

This animated short uses a clever example to show us the difference between renewable and non-renewable energy sources. Plus, it has dinosaurs.

When old J.B. Edwards, a less-than-shining example of a man of industry, arrives in the town of Blowhard, he’s hatched a plan to use dinosaurs as an energy source. Subsidized, of course. But as willing as the great beasts are to do Edwards’ will, the fact remains that there is a finite supply of dinos left in the world. And, as it turns out, hunting for new dinosaurs is a pretty futile endeavor.

But that doesn’t stop our entrepreneur. Using his head and a little smooth talk, he manages to convince his financiers to try again, with something a little less temperamental.

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Drylanders

This film is perhaps best known as the first full-length fiction film produced by the NFB. It was originally intended to be a documentary on farming, but the CBC put the kibosh on that idea, so director Don Haldane took his idea and turned it into a feature.

Produced in 1962, it tells the story of early setters in the Canadian west and the drought that led to Depression. Through the experiences of one family, the Greers, we follow the history of eastern families who moved out west to try their had at farming. Through them, we discover a land, and an industry, that can be both rewarding and cruel.

So, in the end, Haldane got to tell his original story – he just cloaked it in fiction. And as a result, the film played in over 500 theatres across Canada. It was a nice little success story.

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Railrodder

Sometimes you watch an actor on screen and think, “Yeah, maybe they should’ve retired.” I promise you, not once will that thought cross your mind while watching Buster Keaton ride the rails in this hilarious short.

How did the NFB and Keaton even get together in the first place? Simple. Director Gerald Potterton rang him up and told him he wanted to make a film about trains. Guess what Keaton’s passionate about? Trains. Also, he hadn’t been to Canada in almost 50 years, so it was as good an excuse as any.

Filled with sight gags and Keaton’s signature slapstick humour, this film takes you on a cross-country adventure with the best tour guide ever – he may not say much, but he’s sure to keep you entertained.

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Alanis Obomsawin: Voices of Dignity

The Masters Series: Wolf Koenig

Wolf Koenig was born in Dresden in 1927. In 1937, he fled Nazi Germany with his family to seek a new home in Canada. They ended up in Cambridge, Ontario, on a 45-acre farm.

Wolf came to filmmaking as a career in his early 20s, when an NFB crew arrived on his farm to film the demonstration of a new machine. He approached them, and six weeks later was working as a junior splicer.

He worked his way up through the ranks, being multi-talented and a quick study. He collaborated with some of the greats, like Colin Low and Roman Kroiter. In addition to his work in animation, he was also one of the founders of the Direct Cinema at the board.

His goal was simple –

“Show our world and the lives lived by ordinary people, but without influencing or manipulating them. Observe but do not disturb. Preferably, remain invisible. All with the purpose of showing us all who we are.”

Wolf was a master with the camera, having done the groundbreaking work featured in Norman McLaren’s Neighbours. He was as fascinated by the technical aspects of filmmaking as he was by the images and the storytelling. And he was uniquely suited to excel in all three.

He retired in 1995, moving back to Ontario to build furniture. He passed away in 2014, but his contributions and his legacy will live on in documentary cinema forever.

City of Gold

In this film, made together with Colin Low, we go back in time to the heyday of Dawson City, during the gold rush. Celebrated Canadian author, Pierre Berton, who was born there in 1920, tells the story of his father’s attempts to strike it rich in 1897.

City of Gold shows the stark contrast between Dawson City during its one crazy summer and the town it had evolved into by the time Berton was born. He’s a brilliant storyteller, and its easy to get sucked in and swept along on the journey. It’s crazy to think that of the tens of thousands who made it there, only a few struck gold.

The film came about when Colin Low was called in to look at some photos that had been discovered in an old, run-down house. He called in Wolf and Bob Verrall, and the rest is history. Low actually made two films out of the material, it was so abundant. The other was simply entitled, Gold.

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Glenn Gould: Off the Record

This is such a great slice-of-life film that captures the personal side of one of the greatest classical pianists of the 20^th century, Glenn Gould. Gould, boy genius, had developed perfect pitch by the age of 3, and by the age of 6 was performing concerts for large gatherings at his local church.

But this film isn’t about Gould’s performances – for that you need to watch Glenn Gould: On the Record. This one is about what goes on when Gould isn’t performing. Or, perhaps more accurately, when he isn’t recording. That’s one of the things you’ll learn about him in this film, that he’s much more comfortable in studio than he is on stage.

From his famous adjustable chair to his introvert’s paradise on Lake Simcoe, we get to peek into many different facets of the artist’s life. Gould talks a lot about his life and work, and it’s a fascinating tale that he weaves. One of kookier artists (if that’s the right word), it’s a pleasure to get to know him a little bit better.

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It’s a Crime

Back in the day, it seems that NFB filmmakers moved fluidly between genres, from animation to fiction to documentary and back again. I guess it was a by-product of having all the talent in-house, rather than on a contract or freelance basis.

This film was a joint project between Wolf Koenig, who directed, and Gerald Potterton, who animated. Talk about a dream team! Potterton, of course, went on to work on films like The Yellow Submarine and Heavy Metal, furthering his pedigree.

In this story, animation and humour are used to present options to seasonal unemployment. There are many industries where this is an issue, and the point is driven home by none other than a thief. Yup, a thief. He’s irritated because during the off months, all the safes he cracks are bare, forcing him to undertake less desirable jobs to get by.

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Lonely Boy

“We want Paul! We want Paul!” chant the many, many women standing outside the theatre door. And they’re not talking about Paul McCartney. In fact, he’s not even a blip on their radar yet. They’re screaming for Paul Anka.

“Who’s Paul Anka?” my 10-year-old daughter asked.

“The Justin Bieber of his day,” I replied.

“But he’s wearing a suit.”

And he was. There was absolutely nothing counter-culture or rebellious about Paul Anka. He was clean-cut, well-dressed, and polite as hell. In fact, within the first 5 minutes of the film we get a full rundown of his great personality by a handwriting analyst. (This was another treat with this film – my mom is a handwriting analyst.) The kid was all right.

With this film, Wolf Koenig and Roman Kroiter have crafted a well thought out look at what happens when you go from being a nobody to a star during the short span of 5 years; what it means to go from mere entertainer to a teen idol. It’s quite the ride.

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I Was a Ninety-pound Weakling

This quaint little film from 1960 was a collaboration between Wolf Koenig and Georges Dufaux, who clearly had a thing for sports-based films. It’s a look at how luxury has made us lazy and offers some (for the time) non-traditional methods for getting fit.

The theory here is that every time a machine robs us of a job that used to be done by muscle, we get a minute fraction lazier. And this was back in 1960. Talk about prescient! To counteract this problem, we get several suggestions for how to stay fit, including wrestling, weight-lifting, and using those crazy crazy machines I used to find in the gym in the basement of my grandparents’ apartment building. You know – the one with the belt that vibrates? Or the roller things you sit on to shape your rear?

We also get to hear some experts weigh in on the topic, like the physical director at the YMCA, who was wearing A SUIT. Or, the famous Ben Weider, who takes us on a tour of “physical culture” centres.

This is really a gem of a film, not to be missed. The storytelling is great, the pacing works well, and it’s just an all-around joy.

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Travel into the heart of a forest fire with these 2 docs

For the past week, we’ve watched as forest fires rage across the BC interior, covering much of the province in a thick haze of smoke. As of Sunday, flights were being canceled due to low visibility (less than 1 km), and extreme weather alerts became commonplace. As the fires continue, people are being asked to stay indoors – that is, if they haven’t already been evacuated.

Over 500 fires still burn, and more than 2,800 people have evacuated their homes with over 1000 more on notice. The air quality in much of BC is bad right now, worse than that of Beijing or Mumbai, both cities known for their poor track record on clean air.

To better understand the force of these fires, and better appreciate the bravery of those fighting them, we’ve selected two films from our collection that bring you right into the heart of BC forest fires.

From Ashes to Forest

This documentary from the mid-80s is a straight-up man vs. nature film cleverly disguised as a close look at forest fires.

From early detection to raging fire, we tag along as various staff members of Canada’s national parks show us how they do what they do. Sometimes, forest fires are necessary – they help with soil enrichment and creating new environments for wild life – but often things get out of hand. With lightning storms raging across some of these parks on a daily basis, dry season often equals disaster.

The film takes us through several wildfires, from Banff to Wood Buffalo, on the border of Alberta and the North West Territories. There’s some incredible footage in this doc. It’s crazy to watch the archival material of the two men heading into a forest fire with two hoses siphoning water from the lake. And having to prime the hoses.

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Small Smoke at Blaze Creek

This is a short film with a lot to offer. In just under ten minutes, it takes us deep into a forest fire, makes a strong statement about how we treat our environment, and features some incredible aerial footage.

Completely without dialogue, as long as you don’t count the radio exchanges, this documentary shows us what goes into fighting forest fires. There are men who get right into the thick of things, determined to thin out the trees and stop the fires. We watch one guy with a chainsaw as he watches overhead to make sure a flaming tree doesn’t fall on him while he works. This is some serious bravery.

Over the course of this film, we watch almost an entire mountainside dissolve into ash. Mother Nature is a force, and this is one of those films that won’t let you forget it.

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Back-to-School: Summer’s done and it’s time to face the music

We have done the back-to-school thing on this blog so many times it’s become a challenge to come up with new films to share. So, this year I decided to go a different route. Rather than selecting films about the institution itself, I’ve chosen five films that deal with our emotions around, and our relationship to, school.

You’ll notice I go from funny to dead serious in this post, and I apologize for the literary whiplash, but the truth is school brings out different feelings in each of us. For some of us, it’s a place to learn and thrive, for others, it’s a place to escape whatever’s going on at home. Still for others, it can be a hostile place that induces fear and anxiety. We all experience life differently, and the same goes for school.

So, as summer wraps up, it’s a good time to contemplate what school means to you. Maybe these five films will help.

Getting Started

Richard Condie is one of the wackiest filmmakers I’ve come across during my time at the NFB. Each of his films are different, but they’re all instantly recognizable as one of his creations. They’ve all got this frantic, absurdist energy to them that’s almost impossible to resist.

This film is about a man who knows it’s time to get down to work and get serious but is completely unable to. This guy is a master procrastinator. He even gives me a run for my money. But it seems like there is nothing on earth that’s going to get him to commit his rear to that bench and practice the piano.

I don’t know about you, but nothing captures the mood of late August/early September in our house better than this film. There’s even a temper tantrum thrown in for good measure! Getting my kids out of summer mode and into school gear is one of the more challenging aspects of parenthood, especially as they grow older. The novelty and excitement of back-to-school has worn off, and they’re recognizing it as the 20-year sentence it really is.

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The Girl Who Hated Books

I have a soft spot in my heart for this film, possibly because it was one of my daughter’s favourites when she was younger; probably because the wonderful Joe Meunis took the time to meet her and give her a signed copy.

I’m including the film in this post because it perfectly captures what transpired with my own kid over the past year. We are a family of readers, all except my daughter. While the rest of us would have our noses in a book, she’d be running around, looking for action. But last winter, something happened. She discovered a series she enjoyed. From that moment on, she never looked back. Gone was her distaste for books, replaced with an unquenchable thirst for stories.

School is great for exposing us to books we might never have otherwise picked up. How many of us would have read Animal Farm, Paradise Lost, or even Of Mice and Men on our own? My own love of Shakespeare comes directly from a teacher who’d stand on her desk reciting soliloquys with enormous passion. Isn’t that what education is all about? Opening our minds to new stories, and new ideas?

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Tragic Story with Happy Ending

This haunting animated film from Regina Pessoa is about a young girl who feels like she was born into the wrong body. Equipped with a heart that beats too loudly, she’s convinced she was meant to be a bird. She is at first shunned by her community, but as she grows to accept herself, so do the others around her.

I realize this might seem like a bizarre choice to include in a back-to-school post, but in fact it makes total sense. While most kids find the prospect of heading back at least tolerable, there are some kids who dread the return more than anything. Kids who are unhappy, who are bullied, or who feel different. Any kid who’s not feeling comfortable in their own skin is not going to be happy in a crowd full of others.

I recognize this feeling well. Grades three to five were a special kind of torture for me. I was bullied endlessly, and as I watched the little girl in this film curl into a ball on her bed, I could feel the knots forming in my own stomach. Feeling different is never fun, and this film is a great reminder of how a little compassion can go a long way.

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The Invention of the Adolescent

By taking us back to the 16^th century, this film shows us how much we take the expression “back-to-school” for granted.

Back then, there was no formal education system. You basically picked up what you picked up being around adults. If you were lucky, you would apprentice with a craftsman, tradesman, or artist. You’d learn all you needed to know to get by in life. But there was certainly no back-to-school shopping and overpriced textbooks.

This short documentary was filmed in the late 1960s and it shows us the changing meaning of youth through the ages, dating back to the 16^th century. Then, children were just smaller adults waiting to happen. They started work at the tender age of 7 and never looked back. There was little separation between young and old. It was like one big party.

Obviously, that’s changed. It was sometime around the 19^th century when educators and reformers came together to shape a different future for our youth. I’ll tell you one thing – that future sure came with a lot of angst and drama.

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Get a Job

If ever your kid needs motivation to get into the spirit of back-to-school, show them this film.

This classic from 1985 features a down-on-his-luck pooch searching for employment. Utterly unqualified, and seriously under-educated, he bounces from interview to interview with nothing but the guidance of a motley crew of doo-wop singers.

It’s a fun film, and the music is great and catchy – I especially loved their take on Glenn Miller’s In the Mood. But it deals with some major stuff – self-motivation, confidence, entering the job market, and putting yourself out there. You know what prepares you really well for all of these things? A good education.

So, beneath the humour of the film, there’s a serious message: stay in school.

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Equipboard: Artists And The Gear They Use

Equipboard showcases the musical gear that artists use.

Emulate Your Favorite Artists

Almost every musician has attempted to emulate the artists that they look up to the most. The entire reason I own a Gibson SG, for instance, is because Rivers Cuomo of Weezer plays one. In the old days, you had to catch your favorite musicians live or be fans of artists with iconic instruments in order to find the same gear that they use. Now, Equipboard is here to make that process easier. The site is building a comprehensive database of artists and the gear that they use, either on stage or in the studio. If you’re a fan of Rivers Cuomo, simply search for his name and you can see a list of the other guitars he uses in addition to the SGs, as well as amplifiers, pedals, and other musical tools.

A Database And Community

Equipboard is especially useful for those just starting out in musical performance or creation. If you’re interested in making beats, for instance, you can peruse the profiles of your favorite producers and pick the gear that you want to add to your own collection. You can also follow your favorite artists to get gear updates, or contribute to their pages if you have additional information about them that’s not currently on the site. The concept behind Equipboard is incredibly simple, but it’s also extremely useful. It’s not the most well-designed site, but they’re building a strong community and should help those interested in all aspects of music production get better at their craft through that age-old task of emulation.

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Gimi: Financial Superskills For Life

Gimi is a new app for parents to teach their kids about using money.

Modern Money Skills

For those of us that grew up in the pre-internet era (or at least the era in which money still existed primarily in the form of cash and credit cards that you couldn’t necessarily monitor online), we had to learn about money the hard way. If we earned an allowance or were lucky enough to earn a few bucks at a lemonade stand or mowing lawns or from the tooth fairy, we could be taught how to save by putting our money in a jar or piggy bank to save for later. Gimi is a new app that has a similar approach to teaching financial skills and money saving techniques. However, Gimi understands that the entire dynamic of the financial world has been changed by the web, and it teaches kids the modern skills necessary for financial survival and success.

A Digital Piggybank

Gimi lets kids receive money from whomever is willing to give it to them—parents, neighbors, friends, etc. Children can even earn money from their parents for doing chores (a concept which did not, at least in my household, exist in the pre-digital age). That money can then be saved to a savings account, while children learn about how to set themselves up for future financial success. It’s a smart concept, especially because it’s designed specifically for children ages 8-18 to use with their parents. It doesn’t even require bank account info to get started. If you’re looking to teach your kids about finances or give them an allowance that you can monitor, Gimi is an app that’s worth a download.

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Download The New VR Adventure Game Museum of Symmetry For Free

HTC Vive VR headset users can now experience an absurdist mind-and-body romp through the highest clouds to the ocean deep when they download the new VR adventure game Museum of Symmetry for free from Steam and Viveport.

Museum of Symmetry is the explosive feel-good alter-universe of cartoonist and animator Paloma Dawkins, brought to life by pioneer VR studio Casa Rara.

• Download Museum of Symmetry from Steam and Viveport

A room-scale VR experience with 2D animation in a 3D playground, Museum of Symmetry, launched in April 2018 at A MAZE. the 7th International Games and Playful Media Festival in Berlin, takes the player through earth, fire, wind and water, disrupting conventional game storytelling to create an unexpected pleasure-positive trip through nature and self.

An impish game mistress welcomes you into a delightfully disorienting pleasure dome inspired by geometry and nature—and wired with infectious dance beats. There are no rules here. Just enjoy!

It sets out to test assumptions about “reality” versus “believability” in this powerful new medium. The goal is to offer the player a fantastical journey that is both emotional and physical, and to test the possibilities for suspending disbelief in VR. The decision to use hand-drawn 2D animation, which hasn’t been seen previously in VR, is a conscious extension of this goal—to embrace a stylized reality from the imagination and pen of a talented artist.

Museum of Symmetry, produced by Maral Mohammadian and executive produced by Michael Fukushima, will also have its Canadian festival premiere this fall, in the Virtual Reality Official Competition at the Ottawa International Animation Festival, September 26 to 30.

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TripSavvy: Vacation Like A Pro

TripSavvy is a travel site written by real experts.

Real Articles For Real Travelers

TripSavvy has the simple goal of wanting to make its readership savvier travelers. Of course, they likely have the additional goal of selling ads or somehow making money by finding a travel blog, but no matter their true intentions, they’re doing a great job of the goal they claim to be attempting to reach. The TripSavvy site has an incredible range of high quality content, with information on travel destinations around the globe. That content is split into three main categories: “Destinations,” “Trip Planning,” and “Inspiration.” Whether you don’t yet know where you’re going, want more info about what to do when you get there, or just want travel inspiration, there’s something useful to read on the site.

Search For What You Want To Know

TripSavvy differs from other editorial sites by including a search component, prominently featured on the home page. Visitors to the site are asked the question: “Where do you want to go?”, along with some suggested search terms. You can type in a location, event, or other key word, and TripSavvy includes all of the articles related to that topic. It’s a smart way to organize the site, especially because most travel blogs can be overwhelming or contain a bunch of information that’s not pertinent to what ever trip you’re planning. If you’ve already got an idea for what you’re looking for in mind, or even if not, TripSavvy is the best place to research for your upcoming travel.

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Lime: Your Ride Anytime

Lime offers smart mobility for the modern world.

Scooters, Bikes, and More?

If you live in a major American metropolis, you’ve probably noticed a surplus of electric scooters littering the sidewalks or zooming around the streets. By now, most everyone familiar with the devices has an opinion on them one way or another. Yet there’s no denying that, like Lyft and Uber before them, Lime and Bird have revolutionized intra-city transportation. Lime, by design, company approach, and general aesthetic, is essentially the Lyft to Bird’s Uber. Aside from electric scooters, Lime also offers smart bikes. The company is actively attempting to solve the problems of urban transportation in a variety of inventive ways.

Revolutionizing Urban Transport Worldwide

Lime is currently operating is several dozen North American cities, as well as a handful of cities in Europe. They’re also expanding quickly. The company’s scooters and bikes can be unlocked via a smart phone app, which is available on both iOS and Android. When you’re finished riding a scooter, you simply leave it wherever you want. At night, employees of the company pick up the scooters and recharge them. You can find locations of scooters via the app, and unlock them via QR code scanner. Whether you’re annoyed with the presence of these scooters or not, it’s difficult to deny that Lime offers a truly revolutionary technology that could change the way we get around cities in the future.

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Science and Technology Throughout History

This week, we’re looking at science and technology through NFB films. There is so much happening in this realm, and things change so quickly, that its super helpful to have a series of films that explains concepts, theories, and possibilities. But to write this post, I decided to go a different route. Rather than look at where we’re heading, I decided to look at where we’ve been.

Through these 5 films, we get some great historical perspective on everything from evolution to atomic energy, from our galaxy to feats of modern engineering. The films are half animation, and half live action. One film even combines the two forms in one.

The beauty of science is that we’re always discovering new things, and as we do, we can alter what we know and update our information. From that perspective, it’s also fun to see what beliefs we once held, and how they’ve been replaced by modern thinking.

From the Big Bang to Tuesday Morning

Before I say anything else about this animated short, I have to say hats off to Pierre Desrochers on a brilliant soundtrack. The music is so perfectly suited to this film it’s just a joy to watch… and listen to.

The film itself, by Claude Cloutier (Carface), is an animated romp through the evolution of life on earth. And it’s done as only Cloutier can do it, filled with beautiful drawings and absurd humour. It starts slow, and it feels like we spend a lot of time underwater, but then the pace picks up and we’re carried along on a swift current through evolution. You just can’t help but get swept up in it all.

And that’s why I find the ending so devastating. I literally get a sick feeling in my stomach each time I hit the credits. So much had to happen over so much time for us to be here today, and yet we take life for granted, instead of treating it like the gift it is.

This film is not only a trip back through time, it’s a warning about our future.

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Life and Radiation

The fun thing about having a film collection that dates back to 1939 is that you get these great time capsules, like this short doc, for example.

This is a film that aims to demystify the concept of radiation for the masses. Centered around the traditional talking head/interview format, it also throws in some short, reported pieces on the different kinds of radiation that the film addresses.

Among these are sunlight, x-ray, and nuclear radiation. On one hand, it’s fascinating to hear about these topics from a 1960’s perspective. On the other, it’s crazy to hear the narrator talking about the need for sun protection, while a guy lounging on the sand covers his face with his book. Yes, sunscreen existed, but it clearly wasn’t in widespread use in those days.

This is some serious old-school science.

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Cosmic Zoom

This is an awesome film that uses the art – and magic – of animation to take us from the farthest reaches of the galaxy right down to the tiniest living organism. Done entirely without words, the film manages to tell the story of the universe in under 10 minutes.

I was once at Hampton Court Palace in the UK, and there was an exposition of drawings from Leonardo Da Vinci – bird’s-eye view drawings made before anyone had ever been up in a plane. That really blew me away. This film is a lot like that. Once you’ve wrapped your head around the fact that it was made in 1968, you get a true appreciation of what’s going on in this film.

We start out simply enough, a boy and his dog out for a canoe ride on the lake. But then we zoom out, further and further, until we’ve reached the very edge of the galaxy before zooming back through space to that exact same spot on the lake. Once back, we take the trip again, but instead of going outward, this time we head inward. Yeah, science!

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Victoria Bridge: The 8th Wonder

I selected this film because I thought there should be at least one film focused on technology in my Science and Technology post. Little did I know when I started watching it that it would propel me back to my high school days, listening to my two favourite local DJs on the radio.

With the help of Terry Dimonte, Patti Lorange (Peppermint Patti), and Rick Leckner, the film pays tribute to Montreal’s Victoria Bridge, which was once known as the 8^th wonder of the world. Why? Because at the time of construction it was the longest bridge built and considered a marvel of modern engineering. Built in the 1850s, it was the first bridge to span the St. Lawrence River.

Aside from commentary on the bridge’s construction and subsequent impact on society, the film also features some great paraphernalia from the bridge’s inauguration in 1853. It was a huge deal, and included some very important guests, like the bridge’s namesake, HRH Queen Victoria. And in further evidence of the fact that the more things change, the more things stay the same, the event was commemorated with a wide variety of tie-in products… like Victoria Bridge perfume. I can’t even imagine what that smelled like!

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Inside the Atom

While this film shares a lot in common with Life and Radiation, this one focuses entirely on atomic energy. It takes us to Chalk River during the 1940s, as scientists worked on the first set of experiments involving atomic energy for medical purposes.

The film presents an odd combination of optimism with foreboding. The music and signage at the beginning are clearly ominous, but the right away the narration plunges into the possibilities for modern science if we’re able to harness atomic energy. At the time, the thinking was that it would replace coal, being nearly 2 million times more efficient.

We get a quick lesson on atoms and electrons, and an overview of Canada as a chief source of uranium, making Chalk River a key player in atomic affairs. But at the same time, we see things that today would make us cringe, like the idea that they tested for radiation contamination at the end of each week, i.e. – once it’s kind of too late.

Perhaps the most interesting part of this film, for me at least, was the absolute declaration that we will never be able to see an atom. That’s the funny thing about science – we make new progress all the time. May I present the Nion Hermes Scanning Transmission Electron Microscope?

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Animation Techniques: Stop-Motion

Although over 100 years old, stop-motion animation has enjoyed multiple bursts of popularity throughout time.

Stop-motion is a technique in which objects or drawings are photographed and then moved slightly, and photographed again. By stringing the photographs together, you create the illusion of movement. Typically, it takes 12 frames to make one second of stop-motion animation.

This technique is often paired with other animation processes, creating a hybrid of the genre. For example, when you use clay, you get clay stop-motion, or Claymation. Think California Raisins. Or when humans are used, it’s typically called pixilation. Think Neighbours.

So many of our favourite animated films are stop-motion. There’s Chicken Run, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Fantastic Mr. Fox, Wallace and Gromit… the list goes on and on.

Luckily, we’ve got our fair share of films in this category. So without any further ado, here are 5 of our best stop-motion animation films.

Sainte Barbe

For this series, I went to our in-house experts for recommendations on which films to include. I don’t attribute the film choices, because I don’t want it to look like anyone is playing favourites. But because I’m not the one choosing the films, sometimes I get to watch one that I might otherwise never see. This is one of them.

I don’t know how this film flew under my radar. First of all, it’s the same team that made Land of the Heads, which is one of my absolute favourites. Beheading children! Excellent comedy fodder. Second, it has such a great Tim Burton-like feel to it, from the animation style to the weird, off-centre storyline.

Essentially, it’s a film about men and their hair. Seems Samson wasn’t the only one worried about their mane source of power. Young little bald Léon is very protective of his grandfather’s beard, believing it to possess all kinds of magic. But Léon’s grandmother ain’t so fond of it – she wants to cut it off every chance she gets.

What follows is a sweet, memorable tale about the ties, or hair, that bind.

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Madame Tutli-Putli

In my opinion, Chris Lavis and Maciek Szczerbowski are two of the most brilliant stop-motion filmmakers working today. Their work has such a distinct style to it, an aesthetic you don’t find anywhere else. And this film is the embodiment of that.

Madame Tutli-Putli is about a woman riding the night train on her own, accompanied by all her baggage – both literal and figurative. She’s suspended somewhere between reality and the imagination, and the whole film has a very existential vibe.

The animation itself is fantastic and a pure joy to watch. That mystical quality spreads across every aspect of the film, from the story to the sets to the characters themselves. This film is a masterclass in stop-motion and should be required viewing for anyone contemplating the medium.

And if you’re a real fan, you might appreciate this.

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The Sand Castle

When people think stop-motion and old-school NFB, this is probably the first film that comes to mind. Co Hoedeman’s short about a mysterious sand creature who forms and gives life to other creatures around him did take home the Oscar® for Best Animated Short, after all.

I sat down to watch this film with my 12-year-old son. About a minute in, he says, “This is pretty good stop-motion.”

I turned to him and said, “You do realize this was made in 1977?” His jaw dropped. And with good reason. The film is awe-inspiring. Yes, it’s a little weird and it’s the kind of film that leaves itself open to interpretation, but there is no denying the artistry here.

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Bead Game

This film is mind-blowing in all its 70’s glory. It’s a 5-minute stop motion short that uses beads. Lots of beads. Like, a staggering number of beads. The beads are arranged to form animals and objects which are then either devoured or morph into different shapes.

It starts out simple – a few beads, a few shapes. But this goes on for 5 minutes, and as it does, the images get more elaborate and mythical. It’s mind-numbing to think about how much time it must have taken to make this film. I mean, just one false move…

Ishu Patel made a quite a few films at the NFB over his 25-year career. During that time, he employed a variety of animation techniques. He loved to experiment, and he either adapted or originated several of the processes you see in his films. Not only was he an influential filmmaker, but he also mentored many animators who passed through the studio. One look at this film and you’ll understand why.

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All the Rage

This stop-motion short was made as part of the Hothouse emerging filmmaker program. I adore it. It’s the story of a mink who walks into a fur shop. It’s funny, it’s gorgeous to look at, and it makes a point – all in under 60 seconds.

We’ve longed described this film as The Fantastic Mr. Fox meets The Shining. It’s a pretty good description. As a first outing for filmmaker Alex Lemay, it showed her talent, her ability to tell a story, and her incredible attention to detail. It was also nominated for Jutra for Best Animated Film.

If you like your morality tales, and your humour, on the darker side, you’ll love this film.

(Full disclosure: I worked with Alex on her latest film, Freaks of Nurture).

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The Masters Series: Ryan Larkin

Ryan Larkin was one of many unfortunate artists who went from genius to ruin in way too short a time span. One of the most influential animators of his time, Larkin had the potential for a life-long career as a pioneer in his field. Instead, he succumbed to addiction and a life of panhandling outside a Montreal restaurant.

Larkin had a rough start in life. He and his brother had been out boating when his brother drowned. Unable to swim, Larkin couldn’t help him. Needless to say, this event scarred him for life.

Ryan first studied art at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, under Arthur Lismer, member of the renowned Group of Seven. A few years later, he went on to the National Film Board, studying under the original master himself, Norman McLaren. His career at the NFB barely spanned a decade. Like I said, way too short.

Larkin’s work is brilliant, which is clear to see in the films below. His talent shines through, from his first film to his last.

Syrinx

One of his earliest films, and the first he made with the NFB, Ryan Larkin’s Syrinx is an ephemeral experience. Inspired by classical mythology, it tells the story of a nymph who escapes Pan’s romantic advances by fleeing to a nearby river. As usually happens in these instances, things don’t turn out as planned.

Larkin’s genius is easily seen in this first effort. The detail in the charcoal sketches is incredible, and the morphing images are fluid and fleeting. He was under good guidance, being a member of Norman McLaren’s student group. And while his later films strayed from this thematic, this one still manages to carry a distinctive Larkin stamp.

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Cityscape

I’m not going to pretend to understand everything that’s going on in this 1-minute short, but I am able to follow the progression of Ryan Larkin’s style from the last film to this one, and we’re only talking about a year in between them.

Again, we have the black and white transient drawings, but this time they display a series of people who cross from one side to another, only to vanish into a hole. Then some other stuff happens and the whole thing was a little confusing but entirely mesmerizing. When it ends, it feels like a spell’s been broken.

I love this film, and I can watch it over and over again. If you haven’t seen it, take a minute, literally, to watch it.

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Walking

This film is a masterpiece. I say that with no disrespect to Ryan Larkin’s earlier works, but this film is simply breathtaking. At face value, it’s a study of the human body walking, but it’s rendered with sensitivity, humour, grace, and not one spoken word. The brilliant soundtrack says it all.

Walking uses a variety of animation techniques, from drawing to colour wash to something I can’t even name (when all the action’s going on in the guy’s upper body). But for me, I fall in love each time we get to the 3 minute, 15 second mark. I adore watching all those bodies move in their own unique ways.

I think this film is where Larkin really finds himself. It did, after all, earn him an Oscar® nomination.

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Street Musique

So now we’ve gone from the mid-60s to the early 70s and we can easily see the decade’s influence on Larkin’s work. Still, this film is another natural progression, so much so that it makes you stop and appreciate the arc of his career, in just 4 films.

The film starts out with some live action scenes of street musicians playing to a sparse but enthusiastic crowd. The music is up-beat and you can’t help but tap your toe as you watch. Then we dive into the universe of Ryan Larkin, which is again rendered in drawings and colour washes, but this time it’s a little bolder. Possibly some mind-altering substances were involved.

And then, just as you get into the action, Larkin slows it all down. Rather than forms in motion it becomes about colours and scenes and slow dissolves. It’s like one of those Bill Mason-like reminders to slow down and open your eyes.

And then we’re back. And it gets pretty trippy.

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Ryan

I had to make a call here, whether to include Spare Change, Ryan Larkin’s last film, or Ryan, which although is about the filmmaker, wasn’t made by him. I opted for the latter, for no other reason than I felt that people should have a chance here to peek behind the scenes, to see what the man behind the artistry was really going through. Also, as the former was completely posthumously, I’m not sure how much of it he actually did.

Ryan won the Oscar® for Best Animated Short, and with good reason. It’s a raw, hard-hitting and sometimes painful to watch account of a brilliant man on a downward spiral. This was one of the first films I watched when I started working for the NFB, and it shocked me. Not only because of the story itself, but also because for a good part of my adult life I’d been unknowingly bagging and giving my Schwartz’s leftovers to cinematic genius.

The form itself is experimental, using computer-generated imagery in Landreth’s signature style. And it’s a hard film about addiction and living out your worst nightmares. But it is so incredibly done, and a must-watch. So long as you’re of an appropriate age. Definitely not recommended for children.

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What’s right? Watch 5 films that explore the concept of social justice

Social justice is a topic we know well at the NFB. It’s a topic that lends itself well to the documentary form, and as a result has formed the backbone of many a film.

There are so many facets to explore in the relationship between individuals and society; in the distribution of wealth, opportunity, and social privilege. It is through this exploration that we can examine, and perhaps come to some agreement, on what is fair and just in these regards.

At the heart of it, I think that’s what these 5 films aim to do – offer us an opportunity to examine these issues and draw some conclusions about what it means to live in a fair and just society.

Payback

This feature doc from 2011 was based on Margaret Atwood’s bestsellng book, Payback: Debt and the Shadow Side of Wealth. The book, in turn, was based on a series of Massey Lectures that Atwood gave in 5 different Canadian cities back in 2008. The subject was debt, but from a very different perspective.

We tend to think of debt in financial measures – that which is derived from borrowing and lending. And while the latter remains true, debt isn’t always a financial construct. This film looks also looks at the psychological, theological, literary, and ecological aspects of debt, as well.

Payback is an exploration of the relationship between debtors and creditors, both traditional and non-traditional. It seeks to uncover how debt affects relationships, societies, governments, and life and the planet itself. It does this by looking at specific stories, bringing us right into the heart of what it means to owe and be owed. From the wealth of Conrad Black to the near-slave conditions of the tomato field workers in southern Florida, we see it all.

It is the perfect film to kick off the topic of social justice.

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Wal-Town the Film

Talk about your crazy road trip. In this feature-length doc, six students based out of Quebec embark on a cross-country mission to visit 36 of the 200 Walmart stores. Why? To raise awareness about their business practices, and how it affects cities across Canada.

Joining the activists is, obviously, a film crew, but also – just for fun – a wacky gonzo journalist. Not quite Dr. Gonzo gonzo, but pretty entertaining nonetheless. He was researching a story on Walmart that he’d pitched to a publication when he came upon the Wal-Town crew (that’s what the students call themselves). He gave them a call and asked if he could ride along.

While he works on his story, we see the students working hard toward their goal. According to them, their aim is to take culture back from the giant multi-national corporations. They’re worried about “being consumers at the risk of being citizens.” It’s a social justice mission at its finest.

They kick off their journey by visiting the only unionized store in Canada, so we actually do get to see both sides. It’s a fascinating and entertaining film, no matter which side of the conversation you fall on.

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The Downtown Project

I wasn’t sure what to expect when I sat down to watch this film. The description we have on the site paints it as a film about a seedy social housing complex that sits at the centre of Montreal’s downtown core. I was expecting social justice style activism in petitioning for better living conditions. But it only takes a few minutes of watching the film to realize that the residents don’t view their home in this way at all.

Les Habitations Jeanne-Mance is, or was at the time of filming in 2011, the largest social housing complex in Quebec. Its population is made up of 1700 residents, the majority of which are immigrants. As one resident says, it’s like living in the United Nations. Of those 1700, about 500 are youth 18 and under. After listening to just one of those kid’s stories, you realize that some of them see their home as paradise on earth, compared to where they’ve come from.

The film is a real wake-up call. This is a community of people who, for the most part, are truly grateful for what they have. It’s a stark look at the contrast between the privileged middle and upper classes vs. the lower-class minorities. The average yearly income for residents at the complex is $12,000 per year. Think about that for a moment.

This is a small film with a lot of heart. The stories will touch you and open your eyes. In French with English subtitles.

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Au Chic Resto Pop

Watching a film about hungry children living right in your own city is enough to make anyone’s stomach churn. It is so difficult to wrap my head around the dire situation that some of these families are in. As I shop for groceries, snack between meals, have meals, there are kids who go days without food.

Filmmaker Tahani Rached attacks the issue of hunger head on with this engaging, and oddly hopeful, feature-length doc. It focuses on an organization, Le Chic Resto Pop, which recycles discarded food to feed the hungry for a buck a meal.

We get to see all facets of the Resto Pop, from the staff that works there to the people it serves. We’re privy to how they attempt to balance the business side with the social cause they’re serving. And how important it is to understand that they’re not a charity, but a community practicing self-sufficiency. And all of it set to a great soundtrack.

Rached is no stranger to social justice issues. One look at the films we have online and you’ll see it’s a common theme in her work. This film is no exception. French with English subtitles.

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VTR: St-Jacques

This short film forms part of a collective body of work known as the Challenge for Change project. Challenge for Change was an initiative that made use of newly-available portable video equipment to get right into the heart of community and social justice issues, with the goal of empowering Canadians to help themselves.

The program ran from 1967 to 1980, and is one of the NFB’s most well-known, and controversial, endeavours. This film was made in 1969, so pretty early on. The objective as to stimulate social action in a poor Montreal neighbourhood, by taking a camera and microphone right up to community members and having them talk about their issues.

Rather than being forgotten, or left on the sidelines, these people were finally being given a voice, and a platform to speak. As a result, they learned that the could be active participants in their own lives. It’s a great look at the power of community video. In French and English, with English subtitles.

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Bear Focus Timer: Concentrate

Bear Focus Timer is a concentration timer app.

Get Focused

Despite its relatively short history of existing, the internet has been around long enough that most of us understand the importance of taking a break from it. Bear Focus Timer is an app that uses technology in order to accomplish just that: putting your phone down and concentrating on whatever the task is at hand. Although there are many such apps on the market, Bear Focus Timer takes a fun, unique spin on the concept. In a cartoonish style, the app displays a bear named “Tom.” As long as you don’t try to use your phone within a pre-set amount of time, Tom will help you. If you lose, he roars in disappointment.

But Take Breaks

Bear Focus Timer operates on the “Pomodoro Technique” of productivity. This method breaks down work into 25-minute incremental chunks, broken up by consistent short breaks and one longer break after several “pomodoros” have been completed. Bear Focus Timer also uses white noise as a soothing background technique to help you get in the zone. Although there are several similar apps out there, this one has one of the best designs and is the most fun to use. It’s worthwhile for people to put their phones down every once in a while, even if they don’t actually end up doing anything productive. If that sounds like something that would help you but you need some motivation, Bear Focus Timer is the best place to start.

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