Welcome to Canadianfilm.ca – Celebrating the art, style, and history of the men and women that recorded our nation's cinematic past.

Celebrating the art, style, and history of the men and women that recorded our nation's cinematic past.

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Animation·History·MOVIES·NFB·People·Pioneers

“Budge” Crawley – Canada’s First TV Maverick

September 14, 2026

By James Forrester (First published in Take One Magazine, Summer 1988, reprinted here with permission of the author. All photos courtesy James Forrester) During the 1950s and 1960s, the word television was synonymous with the CBC and to a minor degree the…

Books·Films·History·MOVIES·NFB·People

Summer of ’76 and Three Canadian Feature Film Locations

August 15, 2026

By James Forrester (20 Jan. 2026) First published online at, ARTHUR, February 18, 2026 “We All Begin in Little Magazines” was the title of a short story by Canadian ex-pat author Norman Levine, which appeared in the July 1976 issue of, The…

Animation·History·MOVIES·People·Pioneers·Technology

“We’re taking over” Hollywood celebrates Canadian film productions – J. A. Forrester (31 March 2026)

April 13, 2026

(Above featured image: Credit Crawley Films/Videocraft, courtesy James Forrester) Canadian filmmakers were very successful this year during the 98th Academy Awards held on March 15th , 2026, at the Dolby Theatre (formerly the Kodak Theatre) on Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles. Sheridan…

History·MOVIES·People·Pioneers

MOVIE: GLIMPSES OF GREENLAND

February 25, 2026

*The password is the last name of the Captain of the ship (case sensitive)* Canadian Government Arctic Expedition of 1924 This documentary was produced by the Canadian Government Motion Picture Bureau (CGMPB) to document the federal government’s efforts to establish a permanent…

History·People·Pioneers

Michal Ann and Patrick Lawrence CRAWLEY, CROSLEY

October 20, 2025

It is with a sad heart that I share the news of the passing of Michal Ann Crawley, and her son Patrick Lawrence Crosley. I first met Michal when working at the Gatineau Preservation Centre as a Film Conservator. At that time,…

Films·History

Celebrating National Canadian Film Day APRIL 16, 2025

April 15, 2025

Presenting the Canadian Cameo Series “Launched in 2014, CanFilmDay has brought together hundreds of thousands of Canadians, to celebrate our stories and the incredible achievements of our filmmakers. Whether you host a screening or attend one, watch from the comfort of your…

History·People·Pioneers

Crawley College

February 20, 2025

by James A. Forrester F. R. “Budge” Crawley (1911-1987) was a notable Canadian pioneer film producer who co-founded Crawley Films in Ottawa with his wife Judith (Sparks) Crawley (1914 -1986), following the encouragement of NFB founder and Scottish documentarian John Grierson, when…

History·People·Pioneers·Research·Technology

Beyond the Printed Word: Interview with Rosemary Bergeron

January 3, 2025

"All too often people dealing with history, studying history, think only of what's in a book, what's in the printed word. So, we wanted to tell people that really, there's so much in our history that's in audio recordings, radio programs, television…

Films·History

So, what’s a Canadian feature film?

July 28, 2024

By J. A. Forrester (revised for submission to Arthur, Canadianfilm.ca, 8July2024) While on a Paul Newman survey I dug out his directorial debut Rachel, Rachel (1968) on DVD, based on Margaret Laurence’s 1966 novel A Jest of God. Not bad for a…

Films·History·People

On the Trail with Grey Owl and Bert Bach

March 24, 2024

Above: featured image description: Grey Owl mending a snowshoe inside cabin, Lake Ajawaan, Saskatchewan, ca. 1933-1934, by W.J. Oliver. Courtesy of Glenbow Library and Archives Collection. By 1936 the dream of a lonely English boy playing Indian in the woods behind his house…

History

History·People·Pioneers

George H. Valiquette, Pioneer Canadian Newsreel Cinematographer

by Rosemary Bergeron

George H. Valiquette, pioneer Canadian newsreel cinematographer, risked his life to get footage of the flooding Ottawa River in April 1922. At the time…

Films·History

The White Road

by Blaine Allan

When The White Road first unspooled in May 1930 at Toronto’s Belsize theatre, behind Mount Pleasant cemetery, it was a six-reel silent feature. It…

Books·History·People

The Movie Years: Trenton, Ontario, 1917-1934

by Peggy Leavey

One wonders what life in Trenton, Ontario might have been like today had predictions made in the early part of the 20th century come…

Animation·History

Before McLaren: Canadian Animation in the Silent Film Era (1910 – 1927)

by Robyn Ludwig

"Fryer envisioned Shadowlaughs in the ancient traditions of Chinese shadow play and the contemporary traditions of European filmmakers like Sarg and Lotte Reiniger. The…

History·People·Pioneers

The History of Crawley Films

by Michal Crawley

Crawley Films was spawned by a young swimmer’s wish to improve his swimming ability and the fortuitous fact that two particular families moved into…

pioneers

People·Pioneers

John C. Foster: Messin’ With Old Thunder

by Dale Gervais

John C. Foster, csc, July 13th, 1927 – September 30th, 2012 I was very fortunate to have received an email in 2007 from NFB legend, John C. Foster, csc, while I was still working at Library & Archives Canada. He was inquiring…

History·People

Frederick Conway Edmonds

by Rick Punnett

Frederick Conway Edmonds of Lindsay, Ontario, was one of the first travelling showmen in Canada. Born in England on June 2, 1850, he had come to Canada as a young man. He was a ventriloquist, magician, and theatre manager and had managed…

History·Pioneers·Technology

Burton S. Moore

by Dale Gervais

Coming Soon… From Library & Archives Canada; Biography / Administrative history: Moore, Burton S: Burton S. Moore (fl. 1922-1969) was a wildlife filmmaker and inventor of a 35mm camera. His film Wildlife in New Brunswick represents the earliest use of a telephoto…

History·Pioneers

The Perfect Order of a Canadian Crowd: Cinema in Ottawa, 1894-1896

by Charles Tepperman

When projected moving pictures appeared for the first time in Ottawa during the summer of 1896, they were not greeted with the sort of uncomprehending astonishment suggested by some historical accounts.…

History·Pioneers

Norman Gunn: Recollections

by Norman A. Gunn

Since retiring from the motion picture industry in 1964, I am frequently being asked by young movie enthusiasts how they can get into the business.…

People

People

Lt. Pierre-Malcolm “Trapper” Stevens

September 1, 1934 – March 11, 2020 TRAPPER STEVENS Recollections of a eulogy by Anthony Hyde (used with permission) I say “recollections” because I was making things up as I went along — surely appropriate since I was talking about Traps —…

by Dale Gervais

NFB·People

NFB Memories

"I had occasion recently to read an account of the life and work of Louis Applebaum, who brought Dad to join the Music Department at the NFB. In it, the author, Walter Pitman, referred to “the old barn on Sussex Avenue”, and…

by Berkeley Fleming

People

William S. (Bill) O’Farrell, Jr., 1954-2008

William S. (Bill) O’Farrell Jr., former head of Moving Image and Audio Conservation at the then National Archives of Canada passed away in Ottawa, Ontario at age 54 on Saturday , 30 August 2008. Bill worked at the National Archives from 1975,…

by Rosemary Bergeron, Yvette Hackett, Nancy Marelli

History·Pioneers

Port Arthur Amateur Cinema Society: Lady Lumberjack

The film, Sleep-Inn Beauty, presented by the Amateur Cinema Society, was directed by Harold Harcourt, from a story adapted by M. Dorothea Mitchell.…

by Dale Gervais

History·People·Pioneers

CANADIAN NEWSREELS: A Personal Reminiscence by Gordon Sparling

I never really worked directly in the newsreel side of film-making, so my knowledge of the Canadian newsreels has been picked up along the way.…

by Gordon Sparling

People

A Movietone News Family

My father William James Pearson (WJPIII) and I shared the exact same name, and (by co-incidence), the same jobs in film, with the same company, and the same role path within it. WJPIII got his foot in the door in this fledgling…

by Bill Pearson

Technology

People·Pioneers·Technology

Capturing the call of the wild – Dan Gibson shared his love of nature with the world.

by Catherine Dunphy

Reproduced courtesy Torstar Syndication Services Published in The Toronto Star, Monday, April 24, 2006 Images Credit: Dan Gibson/Library & Archives Canada…

People

In Search of a Missing Combat Camera: Where Has Norm Quick’s Eyemo Gone?

by Dale Gervais

Group photo of 'A' Section, Canadian Army Film and Photo Unit, 2 C.I.D. Left to right: Sgts. W.R. 'Bud' Sherwood…

Films·Technology

Restoration of The Royal Visit to Canada and the United States of America 1939

by Peter Dudley

Library and Archives Canada (formerly National Archives of Canada) has been tasked with collecting and preserving our nation’s historic moments…

Resources·Technology

KL Archival Film Equipment: Manufacturing & Servicing of Motion Picture Equipment

by Klaus Linnenbruegger

This post is a showcase of the work by Klaus Linnenbruegger, a trained tool and die maker. By entering you…

Animation·Pioneers·Technology

NORTHERN SILHOUETTES: The Work of Bryant Fryer

by Mark Langer

"Bryant Fryer is perhaps the most prominent of the voices unheard in this ASIFA historical survey. From 1927 until 1933,…

featured Books

Books·Films·History·MOVIES·NFB·People

Summer of ’76 and Three Canadian Feature Film Locations

by James Forrester

Books

“Pretty vacant, eh?” Dennis Hopper and Out of the Blue

by Stephen Lee Naish

An essay by Stephen Lee Naish about his soon to be released book, Music and Sound in the Films of Dennis Hopper, 1st Edition, Copyright 2024. American film actor and director Dennis Hopper was a notorious symbol of the excesses of the…

Books·History·People

Pursuing History: The Joys and Hazards of Following All the Stories of the Past

by Ern J. Dick

Experienced by Ernest J. Dick Granville Ferry, Nova Scotia This memoir is dedicated to Nance, my life-partner for 49 years, who witnessed and weathered my working and playing with the past – always with grace and with love. Following our Family History…