Gordon Pinsent
An animated reimaging of the largest wildfire evacuation in Alberta's history, with upwards of 88,000 people forced from their homes.
Director Brigitte Berman profiles Canadian icon Gordon Pinsent, who left Newfoundland in the late 1940s to launch a storied, seven-decade career as one of the leading actors and most beloved figures in Canadian film and television.
Set in a small town near the North Pole where roads lead to nowhere, the story follows Roman and Lucy, two burning souls who come together to make a leap for life and inner peace.
Set in 1952 Grey Rocks – a centuries old town that was famous 250 years ago as a favored port of pirates – Pirate’s Passage follows the story of 12-year-old Jim. Fraught by the death of his father and forced to endure schoolyard bullying each day, Jim manages to carry on, buoyed by his optimistic imagination and fueled by his sense of adventure. The sudden arrival of Captain Johnson, whose small sailboat has been thrown off course by a storm, changes Jim’s life. The Captain quickly becomes a mentor and friend to Jim, giving him extraordinary lessons in self-reliance and determination. Soon, Jim develops a liberating self-assurance that so deeply touches the Captain that he allows Jim to see evidence that the Captain may be more than meets the eye. Is Captain Johnson the same Charles Johnson who was a pirate there two hundred years ago? The lad goes with him on a literal journey into the past to find out and emerges able to navigate the course of his life.
A small town journalist's fabricated stories attracts unwanted attention when one of them turns out to be true.
The Polar Sea is a 10 part television series that follows an incredible amateur expedition through the fabled Northwest Passage during a summer of revolutionary change in the Arctic.
A small fishing village must procure a local doctor to secure a lucrative business contract. When unlikely candidate and big city doctor Paul Lewis lands in their lap for a trial residence, the townsfolk rally together to charm him into staying. As the doctor’s time in the village winds to a close, acting mayor Murray French has no choice but to pull out all the stops and begin The Grand Seduction.
A disparate variety of couples from all walks of life strive to maintain active sex lives despite the notable distraction of having kids.
Stephen Leacock recounts his growing up period in the small town of Mariposa, Ontario, located on the shores of Lake Wissanotti with its notoriously leaky holiday steamer. It is a town similar to many other small towns in Canada with its odd assortment of residents.
It takes two or three generations for the monarch butterfly to reach the Canadian breeding grounds, but it is one "supergeneration" that makes the 2,000 mile return trip back south into central Mexico. The documentary film covers Dr Fred Urquhart's interest in monarch butterflies, with perspectives of Urquhart as a child wondering where the butterflies went, his years of research and study into their life and migration, to his time decades-later as a senior scientist looking back at his investigations and discoveries about the insect's life pattern.
Insecure thirteen year-old Esther Weary is on the brink of puberty and must come to terms with the realities of becoming a woman with her well-meaning grandpa and his pet pug.
A sweeping epic of good and evil, treachery and intrigue, violence and beauty, a sensuous, spirited story set against a backdrop of war, religious strife and power struggles in 12th Century England.
Babar and the Adventures of Badou is a 3D animated children's TV series that premiered in 2010 based on the characters created by Jean and Laurent de Brunhoff. The series has created new characters to the Babar universe, including Badou, who is Babar's 8-year-old grandson and the central character of the series. The series is co-produced by Nelvana and TeamTO in association with The Clifford Ross Company, TF1, YTV, and LuxAnimation. The English version of the twenty-six episode series first premiered on September 6, 2010 in Australia on ABC2 and in Canada on YTV on Monday, November 22, 2010. Vice President and Managing Director of Jumbo Pictures, and Nelvana Enterprises, Colin Bohm explained "Nelvana is excited to bring Babar into the 21st century with a new 3D TV series as well as a comprehensive licensing program from TF1". On September 16, 2010, Nelvana Enterprises has confirmed that the series will premiere in the U.S. on Disney Junior. The show premiered on February 14, 2011, along with the premiere of the television block. Although the series features a majority of new characters to the Babar universe, original characters remain though, such as Babar, Celeste and Lord Rataxes, with other original characters also involved.
Through several interlocking stories, including the story of maritime commerce and the ships that move cargo through the inland waterway, Mysteries of the Great Lakes will take you on a journey through the greatest lake system in the world, and showcase the amazing geography, ecology, science, and history of the region.
This behind-the-scenes special features cast members musing over public television's beloved "The Red Green Show," the wacky sketch series revolving around the wit and wisdom of outdoors-man, handyman and populist philosopher Red Green (Steve Smith). Backstage anecdotes, rare outtakes and cast commentary shed light on the smart writing and spot-on acting that helped make this unlikely show such a long-running success.
A man coping with the institutionalization of his wife because of Alzheimer's disease faces an epiphany when she transfers her affections to another man, a wheel chair-bound mute who also is a patient at the nursing home.
During World War II, the usually sleepy town of Gander, Newfoundland is abuzz with activity as the stopover point for many flights between North America and the European Theater. Teenager Terry Fleming, who lives just outside of Gander, is feeling conflicted. He wants to work in Gander so that he can have access to the plethora of movie stars and GIs flying though the area.
This Canadian made comedy/drama, set in Hamilton, Ontario in 1954, is a sweet and - at times - goofy story that becomes increasingly poignant as the minutes tick by. It's the fictional tale of a wayward 9th grader, Ralph (Adam Butcher), who is secretly living on his own while his widowed, hospitalized mother remains immersed in a coma. Frequently in trouble with Father Fitzpatrick (Gordon Pinsent), the principal of his all-boys, Catholic school, Ralph is considered something of a joke among peers until he decides to pull off a miracle that could save his mother, i.e., winning the Boston Marathon. Coached by a younger priest and former runner, Father Hibbert (Campbell Scott), whose cynicism has been lifted by the boy's pure hope, Ralph applies himself to his unlikely mission, fending off naysayers and getting help along a very challenging path from sundry allies and friends.
The story revolves around former food writer, Jane Stern, and how she conquered clinical depression after becoming a paramedic.
CHRISTIAN SLATER plays a worldly and urbane priest who is forced to challenge his comfortable existence as an ecclesiastical spin-doctor when he comes to believe in the innocence of a young priest accused of murder. His only ally, a journalist, is also his former sweetheart.
The film tells the story of two good friends who live together, Andrew, an agoraphobic travel agent who works from his home, and Dave, a loser who works in an office where he is treated with contempt. Just when it seems things can't get any worse for the two, the entire world outside of their house disappears and is replaced with an endless white void.
When his father dies, Terry (Gary Sinese) returns to the house where he grew up, planning to stay only long enough to clean and settle the estate. Yet something indescribable keeps him there longer than expected. Soon, he is reunited with memories and people from his past and his life is changed forever.
'Hemingway vs. Callaghan' is based on the true story of the friendship between Ernest Hemingway and Morley Callaghan in Toronto and Paris between 1923 and 1929.
When American citizens were stranded in Canada on 9/11, their northern neighbors opened their doors.
An emotionally-beaten man with his young daughter moves to his ancestral home in Newfoundland to reclaim his life.
After marrying a handsome man she barely knows, a woman experiences threatening calls and violent attacks from a mysterious woman who claims to be her new husband's former lover.
The Old Man and the Sea (Russian: Старик и море) is a 1999 paint-on-glass-animated short film directed by Aleksandr Petrov, based on the novel of the same name by Ernest Hemingway. The film won many awards, including the Academy Award for Animated Short Film. Work on the film took place in Montreal over a period of two and a half years and was funded by an assortment of Canadian, Russian and Japanese companies. French and English-language soundtracks to the film were released concurrently. It was the first animated film to be released in IMAX. Oscar winning animation of the classic Hemingway story.
Power Play was a Canadian television drama series, which aired on CTV from 1998 to 2000. The series was filmed at Copps Coliseum in Hamilton, Ontario. The show starred Michael Riley as Brett Parker, a former New York City sports agent who became the general manager of a National Hockey League franchise, the Hamilton Steelheads. One of the throughline plots of the series dealt with Parker's ongoing love–hate relationships with the sport, the team and his superior at McArdle Industries, corporate executive Colleen Blessed, played by Kari Matchett. The cast also included Gordon Pinsent as team owner Duff McArdle, Jonathan Crombie, Jennifer Dale and Al Waxman. The show's theme song was a modernized version of the Stompin' Tom Connors classic, "The Hockey Song", performed partly by Connors himself, and then transitioning to the performance of the band Rusty. The show was briefly aired on the US network UPN, starting in 1999, but was pulled after just two episodes. The second episode aired in the US has the distinction of being the lowest-rated episode of any prime-time TV series ever aired by any US network.
Pippi Longstocking is a Canadian animated television series, based on a series of children's books drawn and written by Astrid Lindgren. The television series was produced by Taurus Film and the Canadian company Nelvana Limited, and aired for one season on Teletoon starting the day the channel launched, October 17, 1997, and HBO, Channel 4, Nickelodeon UK, POP and Pop Girl, with 26 half-hour episodes produced. The show is currently run on YTV in Canada and qubo in the United States. The Story Editor and chief writer for the series was Ken Sobol. His son John Sobol also wrote several episodes.
Two small time hoods pretend to be serious henchmen in order to get to do a job in Toronto that they think will get them serious recognition in the mob. Things soon get out of control.
A man is sent to a small town to assess which of the workers in the local factory that supplies the town with jobs should get the boot when the downsizing begins. He gets sidetracked when he falls in love with a local, a cute single mom.
Rachel is the daughter of a wealthy media tycoon. Her husband dies in a car crash. Years later she meets Eric a photographer for New Woman magazine. They fall in love and quickly marry. On honeymoon in a remote cottage we discover that Eric's plan all along has been to get some of her father's money and sets in motion a faked kidnap of himself and Rachel. Rachel is unaware of his plan but begins to suspect something due to his suspicious behaviour. As her father hires a investigator to catch the kidnappers, Rachel begins to fear for her safety as Eric's plan becomes clearer.
A divorced woman falls in love with a mentally-disabled man, but his family objects to their relationship.
An overworked woman encounters a pair of armed robbers on the subway home. When one of them is killed, apparently as he divulges the location of some stashed money to her- police place her in protective custody, only she is uncertain what the man told her prior to being shot as she was wearing a pair of headphone as the time. She meets up with a disgruntled cop (Richard Dean Anderson) who decides to join her in searching for the money. A strange twist makes their hunt possible.
A Scottish girl is being adopted by the judge who has condemned all the members of her family to death. But as she remembers all of this she commits a lot of atrocities.
Children's book authors Jean and Laurent de Brunhoff's most beloved elephant comes to the big screen in this animated family tale. Elephant monarch King Babar tells the tale, that unfolds via flashback, of how a much-younger Barbar and his girlfriend Celeste save her village from the pugnacious rhinoceroses that have come to raid it.
Babar is a Canadian/French/Japanese animated television series produced in Quebec, Canada by Nelvana Limited and The Clifford Ross Company. It premiered in 1989 on CBC and HBO, subsequently was rerun on HBO Family and Qubo. The series is based on Jean de Brunhoff's original Babar books, and was Nelvana's first international co-production. The series' 78 episodes have been broadcast in 30 languages in over 150 countries. Episodes of Babar currently air on Ion Television and Qubo. While the French author Laurent de Brunhoff pronounces the name Babar as "BUH-bar", the TV series in its first five seasons pronounces the name as "BAB-bar". In 2010, a computer-animated sequel series spin-off of Babar titled Babar and the Adventures of Badou was launched. The new series focuses on a majority of new characters.
A small Canadian town is devasted when a local mine--the town's only source of income--is closed. One man incurs the wrath of the townsmen when he stubbornly refuses the small amount of settlement money offered by the government.
Based on fact, this is the story of a notorious Canadian bank-robbery gang.
Devil at Your Heels, traces the trials of stuntman Ken Carter who attempts a death defying aerial jump in a car. Not content with a normal jump, Ken Carter attempts a jump from Canada to the USA.
Director Allan King's 1981 drama, based on true events, stars Ellen Burstyn as a strong-willed woman struggling to survive with her family in the Canadian wilderness.
A dramatized account of how the staff of the Canadian Embassy helped a group of American diplomats escape from Iran during the Iranian Revolution.
This movie chronicles Jack London's epic journey from San Francisco to the Klondike gold fields in 1898.
The coming-of-age of adolescent Brian O'Connal in small town Depression-era Saskatchewan is told. The son of the local pharmacist Gerald O'Connal, Brian is in many ways a typical boy, who dislikes school if only because of his run-ins with the nervous schoolteacher, Miss MacDonald, and who tries to catch gophers with his friends, Artie and Forbsie. His best friend and protector is slightly older Jonathan Ben, better known as The Young Ben (as his father is referred to as The Ben), who is highly regarded as a problem by those in town who see themselves as the moral authority if only because of The Young Ben's association to The Ben, the town still keeper and drunk. Brian's life takes a turn when his parents have to leave town temporarily, while Brian stays on his Uncle Sean's farm. That stint leads to a series of events which make Brian see life around him through slightly older and wiser eyes.
An unsuccessful middle-aged college professor commits suicide, leaving his wife to cope with guilt, shame, and an angry teenage son who blames her for his father's death.
This short film studies the works of one of Canada's greatest contemporary etchers - Newfoundland-born David Blackwood. The artist himself guides viewers through a step-by-step explanation of the etching process. Scenes of his hometown, examples of his own work and vivid tales of an old mariner recall the tragic seal hunts and a way of life that has now vanished.
A promotional video produced by the Alberta government in 1975, "The time of the tar sands", featuring Gordon Pinsent. credit: Archives of Alberta.
LAPD Officer Newman has not gotten the reputation of a straight arrow by avoiding conflict when fighting for right. In this police drama, his honesty is put to the test when he and his partner discover a international drug ring involving some of the department's highest ranking officers.
The sponsors of a drug-rehabilitation center stage a robbery to maintain funding of the facility, but the loot turns out to be syndicate-owned.
A small-time hood is murdered just as he is about to blow the whistle on an organized crime ring.
Will Cole is a charismatic 35 year old paper mill laborer who seems to celebrate a life of bad choices. He lives and behaves as if he was still 18, womanizing and drinking and rejecting responsibility because he sees no reason to take life seriously. Surprisingly enough, despite his devil-may-care attitude, he has several important people in his life. He maintains a special relationship with Stan, an old mentor who lives in a nursing home, and Ruth, the only woman he truly cares about. Andrew is his best friend but grows tired of Will's antics, and he is soon to be married and moving on. Will constantly has something up his sleeve but his pranks inevitably bring pain and tragedy to those closest to him, forcing him to reevaluate his life and make some difficult decisions. (IMDb)
A family of doctors that runs a medical clinic finds itself up against a sudden cholera epidemic and a movie star who refuses to accept treatment for the disease.
Forbin is the designer of an incredibly sophisticated computer that will run all of America's nuclear defenses. Shortly after being turned on, it detects the existence of Guardian, the Soviet counterpart, previously unknown to US Planners. Both computers insist that they be linked, and after taking safeguards to preserve confidential material, each side agrees to allow it. As soon as the link is established the two become a new Super computer and threaten the world with the immediate launch of nuclear weapons if they are detached. Colossus begins to give its plans for the management of the world under its guidance. Forbin and the other scientists form a technological resistance to Colossus which must operate underground.
Young businessman, Thomas Crown is bored and decides to plan a robbery and assigns a professional agent with the right information to the job. However, Crown is soon betrayed yet cannot blow his cover because he’s in love.
A portrait of Newfoundland that records a way of life that has all but disappeared.
The Forest Rangers was a Canadian television series that ran from 1963 to 1965. It was a co-production between CBC Television and ITC Entertainment and was Canada's first television show produced in colour. Executive producer Maxine Samuels founded the show. The series ran for three seasons, a total of 104 30-minute colour episodes. Early episodes of the series were broadcast in serialized form as part of a CBC children's series entitled Razzle Dazzle, hosted by Alan Hamel and Michelle Finney. This was the first appearance in a major series by Gordon Pinsent. He left the series in 1965 to star in Quentin Durgens, M.P. In June 2004, there was a reunion for ex-cast and fans just south of Kleinburg, where the show was originally filmed. Six of the ex-junior rangers appeared and Peter Tully flew in from his home in Ireland. Another reunion occurred June 15, 2013 at the actual studios where the show was filmed. This time nine junior rangers and Gordon Pinsent were in attendance. The show's first season was released on DVD by Imavision in early 2007.
A young woman tracks down an elderly man in order to make amends for the tragedy that devastated his life.
