The NFB Mediatheque is quickly becoming a Toronto tradition for me. Today was my fourth time visiting, and it never fails to disappoint. Where else can you literally get lost in over 60 years of cinematic history, ranging in genre from documentary to animation to news reporting to experimental art films, for the princely sum of two Canadian dollars for an entire day? It was a great place to get out of the rainy snow-melty swamp that was Toronto this afternoon, and to charge my dead phone while I was at it.
On today’s viewing list:
- I watched two episodes from a series of general interest news stories from the 50′s and 60′s. They contained a number of segments: Strange Doings had the harpooning of a basking shark (for scientific research), the use helicopters in stringing up electrical cables in Banff, and an overview of the modern accommodations of the arctic.Eye Witness no. 39 had stories on surface mining for coal in Estevan, Saskatchew, the C.D. Howe icebreaker ship delivering supplies to the Far North, and a breeding program in Belleville, Ontario, for a certain kind of fly. The flies are shipped to places affected by a beetle that takes down spruce trees as a form of counteracting their impact on the spruce lumber economy (never mind what introducing those flies to the areas that don’t typically have them will do to the ecology). So very fascinating to watch in light of what is commonly thought nowadays. For instance, that sending inuit kids to school to integrate with white kids, “Indians” and “half-breeds” is not the answer to everyone’s problems. At least, that’s the impression I’m under.
- Curious Cosmologies – this is composed of two short films, along with interviews with each film’s director. While I was entertained by the art, colours and overall development of Alchemists, the second short film, the first one left a big impression on me. It’s called Children Speak, and it’s animated renderings of descriptions from 5 to 7-year-old children of what they think of the Earth, death, and birth. And it is wonderful and delightful, because I like to think about those sorts of things.
- edgecode – experimental films from Pacific and Yukon NFB from 2006. I rather enjoyed Sayonara Super-8. Didn’t watch the entire collection, alas. (I thought I saw a friend’s name in the credits for I thought about you often- hard to tell if it was a coincidence or if it was actually them.)
- Half of Alter Egos, a documentary about the making of the animated short film Ryan about Ryan Larkin, an Academy Award nominated animator who used to work at the NFB and has led a colourful life, to put it lightly. A fascinating story, and one I’m definitely interested to learn more about. I was surprised to learn just now that Ryan Larkin died February 14 last year.
- And just before the Mediatheque closed, I snuck in a quick viewing of the Log Driver’s Waltz, for old time’s sake, and because the McGarrigles are great.
This place scratches my budding filmmaker itch.
