Sunday, August 16, 2009

Montreal Canadiens features from the National Film Board of Canada

Film icon Show of hands, how many of you remember those old National Film Board films that they showed in school?

How many of you dozed off only to be woke up by the sound of the film crunching through the projector?

Now, if the school teachers had shown the film selections I discovered on the NFB’s website, we might have paid attention more.

I’ve pulled three films for our Habs film fest. Get out your popcorn and enjoy.

babyblu First up is  one of the NFB’s most popular films.

 Sheldon Cohen’s “The Sweater”

This 1980 animated short is based on Roch Carrier’s book “The Hockey Sweater

Carrier recounts the most mortifying moment of his childhood.

At a time when all his friends worshipped Maurice "Rocket" Richard and wore his number 9 Canadiens hockey jersey, he was mistakenly sent a Toronto Maple Leafs jersey from Eaton's.

Unable to convince his mother to send it back, he must face his friends wearing the colors of the opposing team.

 

  babyblu

 Leslie McFarlane’s 1953 short “Here’s Hockey”.

Featuring Jean Beliveau, this short film focuses on hockey from the inside out.

Known as Canada's national pastime, this film demonstrates why hockey is such an exciting spectator sport. From east to west, the connection between fans and players is evident in the excited cries of "we've won!"

From Pee-Wee to Bantam, from the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association to the big league pros, Here's Hockey! shows what it takes to make a great hockey player.

 

 babyblu

And now, our feature presentation.

Jacques Payette’s 1998 film “The Rocket”

This 42 minute documentary features rare footage along with interviews from journalists, photographers, former NHL President Clarence Campbell, Canadiens GM Frank Selke, referee Red Storey, Emile “Butch” Bouchard, and Maurice Richard himself.




4 comments:

Patrick said...

You should not forget "Un jeu si simple". It's is French, but hey: who said hockey was hard to understand?

http://www.onf.ca/film/Un_jeu_si_simple/

Kevin aka "yathehabsrule" said...

Patrick: Great find!! I did a search for Canadiens and Hockey on the NFB site but that one didn't show up...or I didn't scroll down far enough...

Fantastic film!

Patrick said...

The thing is I already knew of that pure gem (having watched it about 4 times), and I must admit it took me some clicks to find it in the NFB database, looking to post you a link.

I couldn't resist but share this great piece of hockey, of history and cinema with you and your readers. Organ pipes and hockey fit so well together... :)

Anonymous said...

Sheldon Cohen has Hockey Sweater art for sale at http://thehockeysweater.blogspot.com/