Movies: Kathleen Shannon

Meet Tony Rossi, a 10-year-old boy who can only distinguish light from shadow. Despite this difficulty, he leads a very active life. The short documentary shows the ingenious ways in which Tony manages his life. This film is part of the Children of C...

The women who seek help at Aurora House share a common illness: they are physically and psychologically dependent on alcohol, prescription drugs, street drugs, or a combination of these. This documentary focuses on the lives of five women at various ...

A comparison of four different families in India, France, Japan, and Canada....

A watercolour evocation of a prairie storm coming after a period of severe drought....

A vignette based on the story of John McIntosh, the Ontario developer of the McIntosh apple....

With quiet intelligence and wry humour, retired documentary filmmaker Kathleen Shannon takes us through the arc of her life and career. Beginning with childhood, moving through her formative years, to her overwhelming desire to give women a chance to...

Gurdeep is a thirteen-year-old Canadian Sikh whose family runs a dairy farm near Chilliwack, British Columbia. They have retained their language and religion. Attendance at the Sikh temple, playing soccer with his schoolmates, and working on the farm...

This short film portrays the story of singer Paul Anka, who rose from obscurity to become the idol of millions of adolescent fans around the world. Taking a candid look at both sides of the footlights, this film examines the marketing machine behind ...

Alanis Obomsawin, a North American Indian who earns her living by singing and making films, is the mother of an adopted child. She talks about her life, her people, and her responsibilities as a single parent. Her observations shake some of our cultu...

A montage of watercolour images of the work and occasional play of a farm family....

Intercut with illustrative stock footage, Adam's World present a short lecture by Elizabeth Dodson Gray, a feminist theologian, environmentalist, and futurist. She speaks to us about the severity of our global environmental crisis, and analyzes the r...

This animated short challenges enduring myths, spawned by fairy tales and romances, about women in medieval society. It explores the differences and similarities between that distant period and our own, and shows what medieval women’s lives were real...

Joy is a research biologist, a consultant to a large company. She is also a widow with two school-age children. In discussing her own dilemmas she speaks for many other women. "The powers that be know that women do work, but they turn a deaf ear." Ap...

Joan is a welfare mother with seven children. Originally from the Maritimes, she now lives in Montréal. She would like to work as a waitress, and feels she'd be a better mother if she could. But day care costs more than she can afford....

Women relate their experiences with marriage and motherhood, punctuated by commercials for weddings, among other things. A seminal work by Kathleen Shannon, who founded Studio D, a production entity dedicated to women making films at the National Fil...

This short biopic profiles Montreal lawyer-turned-politician George-Étienne Cartier as he campaigns to unite English and French Canada under Confederation. The political world of a century ago comes to life as we hear debates in the Parliament of Upp...

In the mountainous country near Lillooet, British Columbia, eleven-year-old Kevin Alec of the Fountain Indian Reserve learns to make fishnets with his grandfather, and skin and tan hides with his aunt. He goes fishing with his grandmother and horseba...

...

A light, humorous look at the motor car and the great North American itch for a place on the road. From the comparative peace of Honest Joe's used-car lot, this film hustles you onto our public speedways, where hot rubber erases any distance between ...

Young long-distance runner Bruce Kidd practices and competes....