View all FilmsPolitics and History
From its beginnings, the National Film Board has tackled social and economic issues. Excerpts in this theme show how documentary film can play a part in social action.
Excerpts
Front of Steel
1
"I Just Didn't Want to Die": The 1914 Newfoundland Sealing Disaster
1
"Just One Big Mess": The Halifax Explosion, 1917
1
Land For Pioneers
1
On Strike: The Winnipeg General Strike, 1919
1
Rush for Gold - The Klondike Gold Rush, 1897
1
"They Didn't Starve Us Out": Industrial Cape Breton in the 1920s
1
Trans-Canada Express
1
Voice of Action
1
When Asia Speaks
1
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In the activities for this film, students use the perspective of the Heartland-Hinterland model of economic development to analyze the Canadian National Policy in the North. They brainstorm their own perspective on Canada's North and then create a development timeline as they view Land for Pioneers. After viewing, students, in role, discuss Canada's National Policy from the perspective of different characters in the film and write a position paper expressing their own viewpoint. A second metacognitive activity asks students to explore the overt and covert messages embedded in past and current documentaries on Canada's North.
Download this activity (WORD)
In the activities for this film, students use the perspective of the Heartland-Hinterland model of economic development to analyze the Canadian National Policy in the North. They brainstorm their own perspective on Canada's North and then create a development timeline as they view Land for Pioneers. After viewing, students, in role, discuss Canada's National Policy from the perspective of different characters in the film and write a position paper expressing their own viewpoint. A second metacognitive activity asks students to explore the overt and covert messages embedded in past and current documentaries on Canada's North.
Lesson Plans