Gordon Sparling
2021Grey Owl's Little Brother
Gordon Sparling
Corey Thomson, Grey Owl
The story of the friendship between Grey Owl and a beaver. Sheltered and fed by Grey Owl through babyhood, the little beaver is reluctant to return to his own people. But when he does, Grey Owl (Archie Belaney) is adopted by the entire beaver tribe. The film shows Grey Owl playing with his beaver friends and re-enacting the finding of the baby beaver.
Grey Owl's Little Brother
Rhapsody in Two Languages
Gordon Sparling
Corey Thomson
Rhapsody in Two Languages is a city symphony film reminiscent of the work of Walter Ruttmann and Dziga Vertov, a paean to '30s Montreal that contrasts old and new: horse-drawn carts, flashy new automobiles, busy streets, jaywalking monks, and wild nightlife, with overlaps and spinning images that suggest just how out of control things could get when the sun went down.
Rhapsody in Two Languages
The Roaring Game
Gordon Sparling
Documentary about curling in Canada. It shows: slow motion shot of sweepers clearing the path of the rock; Ken Watson, head of a Canadian championship curling team, demonstrating curling shots; taking care of the curling rink; scenes from Scotland, where granite is made into curling stones); women curling; rules of the game; overhead shot of children curling with homemade cement stones in the jam tin league in Regina (named for the jam tins filled with cement to make stones); high school curling leagues in Western Canada; highlights of a game between two teams skipped by Ken Watson and Jimmy Welsh; outdoor march by curlers and kilted marching band; and scenes of Canadian Curlers.
The Roaring Game
Did You Know That? Third Edition
Gordon Sparling
This documentary is a compilation of unusual facts about Canada. It includes trains which travel in air, eels which swim to the market, and a ship that keeps afloat with its bottom and sides full of holes. Narrator Corey Thomson gives explanations in this educational short.
Did You Know That? Third Edition
Return of the Buffalo
Gordon Sparling
A 1938 NFB short. Part of a series called 'Canada Cameos' that traces the history of buffalo in Alberta, it's threat of extinction and the efforts to protect it as an endangered species. Narrated by Lorne Greene. (black and white)
Return of the Buffalo
Ballet of the Mermaids
Gordon Sparling
Swimmers demonstrate synchronized swimming in a lake. The film tells the story of a sprite playing along the lake shore, who comes across the swimmers, who she thinks are mermaids. The sprite watches the swimmers and joins them in the water.
Ballet of the Mermaids
The Thousand Days
Gordon Sparling
Associated Screen Studios' 'The Thousand Days' is a dramatic, impressionistic review of an historic one thousand days--since September 1939. You see Winston Churchill speaking to the Canadian Parliament, you see activities in the largest machine gun factory in the world (Canadian), factories producing shells, tanks, army vehicles.
The Thousand Days
Ski in the Sky
Gordon Sparling
Documentary about skiing in the Rockies. It shows: skiers coming out of a lodge; attaching seal fur skins to skis to give traction for climbing; protecting eyes with sunglasses and skin with face cream; skiers with their guide; two skiers risking their safety by skiing without a guide; the guide racing to stop the two skiers from skiing over a precipice; the two skiers joining the group; and the skiers arriving at a cabin for a rest.
Ski in the Sky
Hockey Champions
Gordon Sparling
The fourth and final game in the 1933 playoffs for the Stanley Cup played at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto. The match, between the Toronto Maple Leafs and the New York Rangers, is described by the well-known sports commentator Foster Hewitt. Hewitt also interviews the players and coaches of both teams in their respective dressing rooms. Scoreless at the end of regulation time, the game goes into overtime: now the first goal scored will decide the game. The Rangers score to take the Cup.
Hockey Champions
Canadian Headlines of 1947
Gordon Sparling
Harry S. Truman, Barbara Ann Scott
A compilation of Canadian news stories from 1947 including: long skirts, a new look in women's fashion; scenes of a record snow storm; a representative group of Canadians receive the first Canadian citizenship certificates at the Supreme Court of Canada; 18-year-old Barbara Ann Scott in Ottawa after winning the amateur European and World figure skating championships and being presented the trophy by Governor General Viscount Alexander for defending her North American title; postage stamps that commemorate the 100th anniversary of the birth of Dr. Alexander Graham Bell including shots of his home in Brantford, Ontario; the Dominion Ski Championships at Mont Ste-Anne, Quebec with twins Rhoda and Rhona Wurtele of Montreal and Tom Mobraaten of Vancouver.
Canadian Headlines of 1947
The Water Dwellers
Gordon Sparling
This short documentary introduces us to a town where no one pays rent: Simoom Sound in central British Columbia, where loggers live on sturdy river craft. Every week there are visitors: the general storekeeper, the flying postman and most importantly, the forest ranger, who is ever alert to the threat of fire.
The Water Dwellers
