Cara: Your Personal Food and Symptom Diary

Cara is an easy way to find out what’s good for your tummy.

Not Just Another Health App

There are plenty of food and health apps available for both iOS and Android. Many of these apps offer the same sort of service—inspiring you to work out or eat healthy, and possibly often failing. Cara, which is also available on both platforms, is different. The app is designed to help you keep track of what you eat and how it affects your stomach. The app has a specific focus, but that makes it particularly effective in solving issues many people deal with on a daily basis. The app uses a smart analysis system in order to make connections between your symptoms and their probable causes.

A Food (And Poop) Diary

If you’ve ever thought you might be lactose or gluten intolerant, Cara could be a useful aid as you test different diets. If you want to know specifically which foods make you feel a certain way, the app is also beneficial. The app has a ton of features, most of which involve tracking what you eat and how your poop looks (yes). There’s a lot to keep track of, so it’s up to the user to stay on top of keeping the diary current. If you use Cara how it’s intended, it has potential to reveal some interesting things about the food you eat and how it affects you.

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Amazon Merch: Sell Your Designs

Amazon Merch lets you sell your designs on the world’s largest marketplace with no upfront investment or costs.

Changing Another Industry

There’s no reason to write a blog post praising Amazon. If you’re not already familiar with the company, this is either your first time on the internet or you’ve been living under a digital rock. Amazon comes out with new products on a frequent basis, and many of them pose real, monopolistic threats to entire industries. Merch, Amazon’s new online merchandising store, may pose a similar threat to custom t-shirt makers. But Merch also allows anyone to get involved with selling designs online, making it easier to print and ship t-shirts at a low cost. You set your own prices, and receive monthly royalties.

Ship Via Prime

The best thing about Merch is that the product is integrated with Prime. If a customer places an order for one of your shirts, the package could be delivered in two days. Merch also allows t-shirt sellers to stop worrying about inventory. Amazon prints shirts individually after each sale, so there’s no need to worry about stocking up on extra supplies. The site lets you upload your own artwork, the same way online custom or novelty shirts site might have you do. It just takes out all the pain of actually having to sell and ship your items. At the moment, Merch is available by invite-only, but you can request access via the site.

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Alanis Obomsawin’s Hopeful New Opus

Words have always been precious to Abenaki filmmaker Alanis Obomsawin who routinely begins production on a film by simply listening, recording quiet conversations with her main subjects. Much of this original audio later occupies a central place on her final soundtrack.

Engaged listening of this type is a form of cultural solidarity, setting her apart among filmmakers. In a career spanning five decades she’s produced landmark docs like Incident at Restigouche and Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance — amassing an extraordinary body of work that fosters essential new understanding of the Indigenous experience, retrieving First Nations history from oppressive colonial narratives while advancing concrete positive change.

“The best gift you can give someone is to really listen to what they have to say — about themselves and their lives, about what’s unjust in the world, about what’s happening in their communities,” said Obomsawin during a recent conversation with TIFF Digital Producer Malcolm Gilderdale.

Our People Will Be Healed, her latest major film, brings her to the remote Cree town of Norway House, Manitoba, where she listens to students and educators at the Betty Osborne Ininiw Education Resource Centre, a groundbreaking initiative in community-based Indigenous education. The 50^th film in a remarkable 50-year career at the NFB, it gets its world premiere in the Masters Program at the 2017 edition of the Toronto International Film Festival.

“Alanis is a courageous and gifted artist, a tireless and impassioned advocate for justice, and her unparalleled body of work has fundamentally recast understandings of Indigenous-settler relations in Canada,” says Michelle van Beusekom, Executive Director of the NFB’s English Program. “Her ongoing contribution to Canada’s documentary tradition and global Indigenous cinema is incalculable.”

Our People Will Be Healed is the latest addition to Obomsawin’s film cycle on children’s rights — a series that began with the Donald Brittain Award-winning The People of the Kattawapiskak River (2012) and continued with Hi-Ho Mistahey! (2013), Trick or Treaty? (2014) and We Can’t Make the Same Mistake Twice (2016), which premiered at last year’s edition of TIFF.

“We are on the road to a place we’ve never been before, to a new age for Indigenous peoples,” says Obomsawin. “It is our youth who are leading us. This is what I am trying to show in these films.”

TIFF programmer Magali Simard refers to Our People as Obomsawin’s “most optimistic film yet” and in launching her latest work at TIFF, Obomsawin renews ties with a festival that has championed her work for decades.

Our People is directed and produced by Alanis Obomsawin, working with long-time editor Alison Burns. Executive producer is Annette Clarke. Following its TIFF premiere, Our People Will Be Healed will travel across the country with screenings already announced for the Atlantic International Film Festival, the Cinéfest Sudbury International Film Festival, and the ImagineNATIVE Film & Media Arts Festival.

Many titles from Obomsawin’s considerable opus are currently being screened in communities across the country as part of the NFB’s Aabiziingwashi (Wide Awake) Indigenous Cinema Tour. Many can also be seen on nfb.ca

Watch the trailer:

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Happy #TIFF2017! Rent 5 Great Canadian Films for $1.99 Each!

It’s that time of the year again, festival lovers! The red carpets are rolling out and Toronto is buzzing with celebs. That’s right, it’s #TIFF17 time!

This year, we’ve got a few animated gems you can watch (Threads, Charles, and The Tesla World Light), as well as legendary filmmaker Alanis Obomsawin‘s 50th film, Our People Will Be Healed.

As always, to celebrate the exceptional Canadian films being showcased at #TIFF2017, we and our amazing friends over at Canada Screens have a selection of 5 great Canadian films you can rent at a discounted rate of $1.99 each!

See more films here. The rebate ends September 17th!

Stories We Tell

Enjoy Academy Award-nominated filmmaker Sarah Polley’s genre-twisting film that playfully excavates layers of myth and memory to find the elusive truth at the core of a family of storytellers.

oehttps://www.nfb.ca/film/stories_we_tell/

Rent the film here

Starbuck

Montreal comedian Patrick Huard plays a slacker whose life is changed when 142 people he helped artificially inseminate file a class action lawsuit against him.

oehttps://www.nfb.ca/film/starbuck_en/

Rent the film here

Mommy

A widowed single mom finds herself burdened with the full-time custody of her explosive 15-year-old ADHD son. As they try to make ends meet and struggle with their unpredictable ménage, the new girl across the street, Kyla, benevolently offers her help.

oehttps://www.nfb.ca/film/mommy_en/

Rent the film here

Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner

When a malevolent Inuit spirit is summoned to cause strife and mischief in a small community, the lives of two brothers, Amaqjuaq, the Strong One and Atanarjuat, the Fast Runner, are irrevocably disrupted.

oehttps://www.nfb.ca/film/atanarjuat_the_fast_runner/

Rent the film here

Year of the Carnivore

This charming romantic-comedy-drama about a girl with an unrequited crush on a boy who thinks she’s bad in bed so she goes out to get more experience to win him over.

oehttps://www.nfb.ca/film/year_of_the_carnivore/

Rent the film here

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The Best NFB Films of the 1950s

With 3000+ films that you can stream for free, picking a starting point can be tricky!

Enjoy a (subjective) list of the 10 best NFB films from the 1950s!

A Chairy Tale

Follow our bedeviled protagonist (Claude Jutra) as he chases a chair with a mind of its own. All he wants is to sit down, but McLaren and Lambart’s lively animation results in anything but.

oehttps://www.nfb.ca/film/a_chairy_tale/

Blinkity Blank

Join a variety of lively figures as they frolic in Norman McLaren’s celluloid circus. The pioneering animator scratched his filmstrip by hand in this 1955 Cannes Palme d’Or winner for Short Film.

oehttps://www.nfb.ca/film/blinkity-blank

City of Gold

Narrated by Pierre Berton, the film juxtaposes still photographs of the freewheeling past with footage of Yukon at the height of the Klondike gold rush in the 1950s.

oehttps://www.nfb.ca/film/city_of_gold/

Glenn Gould – Off the Record

Join the Canadian concert pianist as he enjoys some R&R at his lakeside cottage and enjoy a privileged view of his life outside the public eye. Watch the continuation: Glenn Gould – On the Record.

oehttps://www.nfb.ca/film/glenn_gould_off_record

Neighbours

Meet a pair of pals whose love-hate relationship comes to blows over a simple backyard flower. Norman McLaren used stop-motion techniques to animate live actors in this ingenious little film.

oehttps://www.nfb.ca/film/neighbours_voisins

Royal Journey

Tag along with Princess Elizabeth and the Duke of Edinburgh on their 1951 visit to Canada as they cross the country from coast to coast, experiencing Canadian art, culture and landscape.

oehttps://www.nfb.ca/film/royal_journey

The Back-breaking Leaf

Learn how tobacco crops are harvested in southwestern Ontario. Terence Macartney-Filgate’s short film portrays the hardship involved in this back-breaking work.

oehttps://www.nfb.ca/film/the_back-breaking_leaf/

The Living Stone

This short focuses on an old legend about the carving of the image of a sea spirit to bring food to a hungry camp.

oehttps://www.nfb.ca/film/living-stone/

The Stratford Adventure

Enjoy this Oscar-nominated Morten Parker short that depicts how the little town of Stratford, Ontario created its own Shakespearean theatre and festival.

oehttps://www.nfb.ca/film/stratford_adventure/

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Transport Yourself to the Canadian Rockies With These 5 Docs

Even among the rest of Canada’s incredible wilderness, the Rocky Mountains hold a special allure and status. Home to majestic fauna, towering peaks, and views to steal your breath away, they’re the stuff of fantasy, made reality. Over millennia, they have been home to many a great adventure.

A number of films from our collection have been set in this region, capturing important stories about the people and wild things who have called the Rockies home. Transport yourself there by watching these five films. They capture some of the Rockies’ historical and contemporary issues, as well as plenty of scenes of the natural splendour that defines the area.

Shining Mountains – Once and Future Wild

Part of a larger series about the historical and contemporary Rockies, this doc lays out some of the important environmental concerns of the region, and some of the work being done to address them. Good research, compelling images, and a direct script make this a powerful plea for meaningful environmental protection for the region.

oehttps://www.nfb.ca/film/once_and_future_wild/

Railroaders

Not so long ago, it was Canada’s railways that kept its people connected from coast to coast, facilitating communication, exchange, and travel across great distances. This doc offers a look at some of the difficulties in maintaining this connection during winter in the Rockies, and the men whose efforts were able to overcome those obstacles. It’s a great example of the kind of important, human stories that have taken place in these largely untamed lands.

oehttps://www.nfb.ca/film/railroaders/

Shining Mountains – Land of Riches

Another entry from the Shining Mountains series, this doc peers into the past of the Rocky Mountains, discussing feats of engineering, politicking, and exploring that made the region an important part of Canada’s identity. It’s a good introduction to some history that you might not otherwise get a chance to learn about, and a chance to gain a deeper understanding about this special place.

oehttps://www.nfb.ca/film/land_of_riches/

Water for the Prairies

Glaciers in the Rockies are an important source of water for the prairie provinces, but unsustainable exploitation of both the water and nearby lands can put that resource in jeopardy. This doc explores some of the ecological issues associated with making careless use of the region’s resources, and the measures that were implemented many years ago to ensure their beauty and utility were preserved for decades to come. For the environmentally conscious, it’s an informative and uplifting piece.

oehttps://www.nfb.ca/film/water_for_the_prairies/

Temples of Time

It’s impossible to truly capture the beauty of the Rocky Mountains with words, and this doc doesn’t try to. No dialogue or voiceover are used in this film. Instead, the mists, wildlife, and natural curiosities of the Rockies offered without distraction. A great film to watch at the end of a long day, and likely to give you an itch for the adventure and solitude of these great mountains.

oehttps://www.nfb.ca/film/temples_of_time/

Image credit: Trafalgar

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Work Work Work Work | Watch 5 Films This Labor Day Weekend

The Labor Day weekend is quickly approaching.

Every year, the Labour Day weekend marks the end of summer holidays and ushers in the dreaded grind of work and school. But before you try to remember your math formulas or how to tie a Windsor knot, you still have a glorious weekend all to yourself. What better way to enjoy that time off than by watching some free movies?

Enjoy a list of 5 short films about work… and just how far some people will go to avoid it.

Dangers at Work

Don Owen’s High Steel (1965) opens on a New York skyscraper that Mohawk steelworkers are erecting—without wearing safety harnesses or using a safety net. The film is inter-cut with images of the Kahnawake Reserve and archival photos from the construction of the Quebec Bridge in the early 20th century where more than thirty Indigenous workers lost their lives. This film is a dizzying look at how sometimes, that mandatory office safety seminar is a good thing.

oehttps://www.nfb.ca/film/high_steel/

Monotony at Work

Jean-François Lévesque’s award winning animated short, The Necktie (2008), critiques the monotony and routine of a dead-end job. Years pass, and boredom replaces all aspirations for our protagonist, Valentin, until an old accordion emerges from the depths of a closet.

oehttps://www.nfb.ca/film/necktie/

Frustrations at Work

We’ve all had this happen to us: what do you do when a noisy co-worker invades your space and gets on your nerves? In, Elbow Room (2002), filmmaker Diane Obomsawin tackles that age old question while offering some humorous solutions.

oehttps://www.nfb.ca/film/elbow_room/

Procrastinators at Work

Some days, you just don’t want to work at all! Just ask Eugene, the protagonist in Richard Condie’s Getting Started (1983). Eugene is a concert pianist with only a few days to rehearse before an important recital. The problem? He keeps getting distracted by things around his apartment! Can he pull it together and buckle down and practice? Find out!

oehttps://www.nfb.ca/film/getting_started/

Reflections on work

At the turn of the 21st century, filmmaker Jean-Claude Bürger wondered what the future would hold for Western workers in a world where the economy was increasingly globalized and where the gap between the rich and the poor was constantly increasing. While the alarmist predictions of the speakers in the film didn’t quite come true, For Man Must Work or The End of Work (2000) is still worth viewing due to the insightful perspectives and pertinence of the questions raised in the film.

oehttps://www.nfb.ca/film/for_man_must_work/

Happy Labour Day!

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