Camera Canada
| Camera Canada | |
|---|---|
| Country of origin |  Canada |
| Language(s) | English |
| No. of seasons | 2 |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | Thom Benson |
| Running time | 60 minutes |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | CBC Television |
| Original run | 13 November 1961 – 14 January 1963 |
Camera Canada was a Canadian documentary television series which aired on CBC Television from 1961 to 1963.
Contents |
[edit] Premise
This was an occasional series of documentaries concerning modern Canadian history, filmed by various producers. It was inspired by the results of various CBC documentaries broadcast in mid-1960.
[edit] Scheduling
The series was randomly scheduled approximately once per month between 13 November 1961 and 14 January 1963. Camera Canada episodes were generally hour-long productions which were frequently broadcast on Mondays.[1]
[edit] Episodes
- "The Annanacks" (René Bonnière producer/director; Lloyd Bochner narrator; Crawley Films company), featuring an Inuit community
- "Big Country" (Norman Caton; Len Peterson writer; Don Francks narrator), concerning a western Canadian cattle drive
- "Boys Village" (Ron Kelly director), concerning a reform school
- "Camera on Canada" (Gene Lawrence director)
- "Campus in the Clouds" (Norman Caton producer), featuring the Banff School of Fine Arts
- "The Changing Island" (J. Frank Willis producer/host)
- "Ciao Maria" (Ron Kelly; Bruno Gerussi narrator), featuring Italians in Toronto
- "False Faces" (René Bonnière producer/director; Crawley Films company), featuring an Iroquois-Huron ceremony in 1961. Bonnière later made a fictional feature film with Crawley Films called Amanita Pestilens (released in 1963).
- "Gold: The Fabulous Years" (Gene Lawrence producer; Hugh Kemp writer)
- "High Arctic Hunter" (Gene Lawrence producer; Doug Wilkinson writer/director)
- "Hockey: An Affectionate Look"[1]
- "Last Summer" (Thom Benson writer), regarding mating in nature
- "The Looking Glass People" (Norman Campbell producer/director; George Salverson writer; Budd Knapp narrator), regarding ballet
- "The Lost Decade" (Ben Maartman writer; Ron Kelly director), concerning the Great Depression
- "The Measure of Man" (Norman Caton producer), featuring the study of the mind and its methods
- "My Enemy" (Bob Orchard; Michael Rothery producers), from the Andre Chamson short story
- "The Opening of the West" (Gene Lawrence producer; Scott Young writer; J. Frank Willis narrator)
- "Pelly Bay" (Ron Kelly), regarding the activities of an Inuit person
- "The Promised Land"[1]
- "The Short Sweet Summer" (Norman Campbell producer; Hugh Kemp writer), featuring the 1963 tour of the National Youth Orchestra of Canada.
- "Tale of Three Cities"[1]
- "The Unknown Country Revisited" (Bruce Hutchinson) - Canadians' express views about their nation. This documentary followed Hutchinson as he revisited parts of Canada he documented in his 1942 book The Unknown Country: Canada and Her People.
- "Upper Canada Village" (Gene Lawrence producer)
- "The View From Geneva" (Maurice Taylor director; Hugh Kemp writer; Princess Grace (Monaco) narrator), featuring the Red Cross
- "Wilderness" (Norman Caton), regarding the wildernesses of Alberta, British Columbia and the Yukon; a plane crash killed Caton and two camera operators during production of this documentary.[2]
- "The World of Bobby Hull" (Scott Young writer)
- A documentary comparing current and 1930s university graduates (Hugh MacLennan)
- A feature on the newly-created Canada Council and its first director, A. W. Trueman.
[edit] Controversy
"Ciao Maria", broadcast in January 1963, portrayed the lives of some selected Italian-Canadians. However, the portrayal of that community drew outrage from Toronto Italian community leaders such as broadcaster Johnny Lombardi and Toronto Roman Catholic priest Emmanuel Faraone. They complained that the documentary provided a distorted, low-brow view of Italians and failed to show the community's positive moral and cultural attributes.[3]
After the end of this series, the CBC produced documentaries in anticipation of the 1967 Canadian Centennial under the Canada 98, Canada 99 and Canada 100 titles.
[edit] References
- ^ a b c d Rutherford, Paul (1990). When Television Was Young: Primetime Canada 1952-1967. University of Toronto Press. p. 406. ISBN 0-8020-5830-2.
- ^ Corcelli, John (May 2005). "Camera Canada". Canadian Communications Foundation. http://www.broadcasting-history.ca/programming/television/programming_popup.php?id=778. Retrieved 7 May 2010.
- ^ Rutherford, Paul (1990). When Television Was Young: Primetime Canada 1952-1967. University of Toronto Press. pp. 421–422. ISBN 0-8020-5830-2.
[edit] External links
- Allan, Blaine (1996). "Camera Canada". Queen's University. http://www.film.queensu.ca/CBC/CBC.html. Retrieved 7 May 2010.
