Keeping Track

In the summer of 1967, a hippie group called The Diggers - led by the cool and charismatic 23-year old David DePoe - wanted to turn the street where they resided, Yorkville Avenue in Toronto, into a car-free zone. Fed up with the noise and fumes from cars, DePoe staged a 3-day sit in where the Diggers peacefully occupied the street to petition the Toronto City Council to get what they wanted. To their surprise, the police were ordered to remove them by force by the city officials who wanted to keep the street open as a necessary traffic artery. After being released from jail, DePoe and his group were invited by the fiercely conservative and patronizing Allan Lamport, a member of the Board of Control and former Mayor of the city to a meeting at City Hall to present their case. The climactic battle unfolded there between Lamport and DePoe, who was representing the Canadian Youth Council.

This feature documentary gives voice to various English-speaking groups in Montréal and other places in Québec as they react to the October Crisis of 1970, when Québec nationalism took a violent turn. A British diplomat had been kidnapped, a Québec cabinet minister murdered. The troops were brought in as a safeguard. This film is a vigorous reflection of the discussions and analyses of the situation that went on wherever people gathered, voicing attitudes and fears, sympathies and concerns.

Canadian businesswoman Dinah Middleton's is devastated when her teenage son, Alex, is killed by a hit-and-run driver. When the police fail to turn up any suspects, she turns private detective to track the killer down. She traces the murderer to New York, only to discover that the crime is not covered by the extradition treaty between Canada and the US. She becomes obsessed with bringing the criminal to justice.

An ex-junkie takes on seedy urban culture to try and locate his daughter.

A divorced mother suspects that she and her two children may be in danger because of her insanely jealous new husband

An unhappy married woman has an affair with a violent criminal. She gets pregnant with his baby, but he gets arrested and goes to prison. Now what?

Directed by acclaimed filmmaker Robin Spry, Prologue was the first Canadian film to screen at the Venice Film Festival. Set and filmed during the sixties, this fiction feature tells the story of a young Montrealer who edits an underground newspaper with help from his female friend and a draft dodger from the United States. Two rival philosophies of dissenting youth become evident in the choices they make: militant protest vs. communal retreat. The film includes some seminal archival footage of a speech by legendary anti-war activist Abbie Hoffman and bloody rioting during the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago.

A long and thoughtful look at those desperate days of October 1970, when Montréal awaited the outcome of FLQ terrorist acts. This film puts the October Crisis in the long perspective of history. Compiled from news and other films, it shows independence movements past and present, and their leaders; it reflects the mingled relief, dismay, defiance, when the Canadian army came to Montréal; and it shows how political leaders viewed the intervention.

In this socially conscious drama, a TV journalist begins investigating a large factory that has been threatening the health of the children who live in the town's poorest, most polluted section. Because of his investigation, he and his family are threatened by company thugs. He gets no help from his TV station as they are loathe to tangle with big business.