Episode list

This short documentary by Terence Macartney-Filgate focuses on the men and women who dedicated their lives and service to the Salvation Army.

This short documentary focuses on a Montreal public school where thousands of immigrant children learn English for the first time.

A day spent harvesting and threshing grain on a dairy farm, using methods already becoming old-fashioned in 1958.

Chronicles the annual pilgrimage to St. Joseph's Oratory, a Montreal landmark where a humble faith-healing staff member of the church gained international renown for his apparent ability to perform miracles.

An attempt to recapture the magic of childhood as the cameras follow children at play.

The misbehaving public performs for the camera in a half-hour miscellany of misdeeds. In a behind-the-scenes look at the hour-by-hour operation of a large metropolitan police force, this film presents a fair sampling of what keeps Toronto's police officers busy twenty-four hours a day.

A look at how mid-20th century Montreal celebrated Christmas.

In preparation for a recording session in New York City, Glenn Gould, as he usually does, first makes a stop at at the Steinway showroom to choose from among the many concert grand pianos available which he would like to use for the recording. Mention is made of his favorite piano on which to practice, namely the one at his recreational property on the shores of Lake Simcoe, his tastes in such not for the bells and whistles of newer instruments, said piano which is seventy years old with a tone and touch more reminiscent of a harpsichord. Mention is also made of his wish to retire from performing at age thirty-five, eight years away, to concentrate on composing. And while he is known primarily for performing the works of Johann Sebastian Bach, he favors more contemporary atonal music. He himself talks about among other things performing on stage versus in a recording studio, and why he doesn't attend concerts of other musicians.

Toronto-based pianist Glenn Gould is in New York City to record Johann Sebastian Bach's Italian Concerto, four years after Gould made an international name for himself with his bestselling recording of Bach's Goldberg Variations. Gould will perform each of the three movements several times over the course of his stay in the studio in his perfectionism, he and the recording crew who will critically review each. That recording crew will have to deal with some of Gould's idiosyncrasies, some problematic, such as his tendency to hum when he plays, and some just humorous, such as he conducting himself when he has a free hand when he is playing. Gould will also have to deal with some of what he would consider necessary evils of the process, such as publicity, including having publicity photos taken. Away from the piano, he talks about his career, being in New York compared to his home in Toronto or anywhere else in Canada, and his very conscious decision, unlike many artists, not to live in the creative epicenter of New York.

This 1959 documentary short is a frank portrait of the daily operations inside the Montreal General Hospital's emergency ward.

Here is a graphic picture of the tobacco harvest in southwestern Ontario. At the end of July, transient field workers move in for a brief bonanza when the plant is ripe. The tobacco harvesters call it "the back-breaking leaf."

A film about the railway transition from steam locomotives to diesel engines.

From a used-car lot to the public highways, slow-motion and stylized photography provide a provocative, revealing look at a people's obsession with cars.

Canadian contralto Maureen Forrester is to perform at the fourth annual Casals Festival (so named after cellist Pau Casals) in June, 1959 in San Juan, Puerto Rico, the performance specifically of "A Hymn for the Madonna" by Domenico Scarlatti, the manuscript for which has just been rediscovered, this to be only the second performance of such since this rediscovery. She will be accompanied by an orchestra of select musicians conducted by Alexander Schneider, the festival's director. It will be a holiday of sorts as her musician husband Eugene Kash and their three children will accompany her. For her, it will also be a lead up of rehearsals, and social engagements as the featured artist. Forrester's background, and the history of Puerto Rico and of the festival are also presented.