These were the reasons
May 01, 2011 | IMDB 0
26 min Watch NowDocumentary, History
This film takes us into the harsh realm of BC's early coal mines, canneries, and lumber camps; where primitve conditions and speed-ups often cost lives. Then, the film moves through the unemployed' struggles of the '30s, post WWII equity campaigns, and into more recent public sector strikes over union rights.
MOVIE COMMENTS
SIMILAR MOVIES
The Flickering Flame
The Blinding of Isaac Woodard
Nanook of the North
Grand Illusion
Wałesa: Man of Hope
Mistress Madeleine
Les Fusillés
Play It Loud! How Toronto Got Soul
Haida Gwaii: On the Edge of the World
Aurora's Sunrise
Rocky Mountain Express
Northlore
Hunger
This Was the Time
In the Name of Confucius
We The North: From Prehistoric to Historic
Inbound
1917
In Bed with an Elephant
Flyboys
SIMILAR MOVIES
The Flickering Flame
IMDB 5.7 | Dec , 1996
Documentary following dockers of Liverpool sacked in a labour dispute and their supporters’ group, Women of the Waterfront, as they receive support from around the world and seek solidarity at the TUC conference.The Blinding of Isaac Woodard
IMDB 0 | Mar , 2021
In 1946, Isaac Woodard, a Black army sergeant on his way home to South Carolina after serving in WWII, was pulled from a bus for arguing with the driver. The local chief of police savagely beat him, leaving him unconscious and permanently blind. The shocking incident made national headlines and, when the police chief was acquitted by an all-white jury, the blatant injustice would change the course of American history. Based on Richard Gergel’s book Unexampled Courage, the film details how the crime led to the racial awakening of President Harry Truman, who desegregated federal offices and the military two years later. The event also ultimately set the stage for the Supreme Court’s landmark 1954 Brown v. Board of Education decision, which finally outlawed segregation in public schools and jumpstarted the modern civil rights movement.Nanook of the North
IMDB 7.1 | Jun , 1922
This pioneering documentary film depicts the lives of the indigenous Inuit people of Canada's northern Quebec region. Although the production contains some fictional elements, it vividly shows how its resourceful subjects survive in such a harsh climate, revealing how they construct their igloo homes and find food by hunting and fishing. The film also captures the beautiful, if unforgiving, frozen landscape of the Great White North, far removed from conventional civilization.Grand Illusion
IMDB 7.9 | Jun , 1937
A group of French soldiers, including the patrician Captain de Boeldieu and the working-class Lieutenant Maréchal, grapple with their own class differences after being captured and held in a World War I German prison camp. When the men are transferred to a high-security fortress, they must concoct a plan to escape beneath the watchful eye of aristocratic German officer von Rauffenstein, who has formed an unexpected bond with de Boeldieu.Wałesa: Man of Hope
IMDB 5.7 | Sep , 2013
How was it possible that a single man influenced contemporary world so significantly? This film is an attempt to capture the phenomenon of a common man’s metamorphosis into a charismatic leader — an attempt to see how a Gdansk shipyard electrician fighting for workers’ rights awakened a hidden desire for freedom in millions of people.Mistress Madeleine
IMDB 0 | Dec , 1986
Part of the Daughters of the Country series, this film, set in the 1850s, unfolds against the backdrop of the Hudson's Bay Company's monopoly of the fur trade. In protest, some Métis engage in trade with the Americans. Madeleine, the Métis common-law wife of a Hudson's Bay Company clerk, is torn between loyalty to her husband and loyalty to her brother, a freetrader. Even more shattering, a change in company policy destroys Madeleine's happy and secure life, forcing her to re-evaluate her identity.Les Fusillés
IMDB 6.1 | Feb , 2015
Louis is a 27-year-old reservist and patriot, as is his childhood friend and longtime rival Bastien, who sees the war, like everything else, as an opportunity. One night, as their unit sleeps near the front, they're bombed. Louis and his comrades fall back in disarray and in the general panic lose their regiment. When they locate it again a few hours later, their general accuses them of desertion.Play It Loud! How Toronto Got Soul
IMDB 0 | Dec , 2024
In early 1960s Toronto, a white, Anglo-centric city, an underground music scene emerged from the Jamaican diaspora, led by newcomers like Jackie Mittoo, Wayne McGhie, and a young Jay Douglas. Battling racism and indifference, they left a lasting but underrecognized mark on Canadian music and culture. Nearly 60 years later, Jay Douglas still champions Jamaican music and is finally receiving long-overdue recognition. Play It Loud is a feature documentary that tells the little-known story of how Jamaican music became a vital, unlikely part of Canadian culture. It traces a cultural migration that made Canada a global hub for Jamaican music - celebrated abroad but overlooked at home. Told through the life and music of beloved singer Jay Douglas, born Clive Pinnock in rural Jamaica, the film follows his journey from teen performer to enduring icon.Haida Gwaii: On the Edge of the World
IMDB 5 | Nov , 2015
Denizens of the British Columbia archipelago unite to protect their land.Aurora's Sunrise
IMDB 8.3 | Apr , 2023
The story of how Aurora Mardiganian (1901-94), a survivor of the Armenian genocide perpetrated by the Ottoman Empire (1915-17), became a Hollywood silent film star.Rocky Mountain Express
IMDB 5.9 | Sep , 2011
A history of the nation's first transcontinental railway accompanies a steam-train ride through the Canadian Rockies.Northlore
IMDB 6 | Feb , 2025
Weaving animation and live action, Northlore delves into the transformational stories of people living in Canada’s North and their deep connection to the land and its wildlife.Hunger
IMDB 7.2 | May , 2008
The story of Bobby Sands, the IRA member who led the 1981 hunger strike during The Troubles in which Irish Republican prisoners tried to win political status.This Was the Time
IMDB 0 | Jan , 1970
When Masset, a Haida village in Haida Gwaii (formerly known as the Queen Charlotte Islands), held a potlatch, it seemed as if the past grandeur of the people had returned. This is a colourful recreation of Indigenous life that faded more than two generations ago when the great totems were toppled by the missionaries and the costly potlatch was forbidden by law. The film shows how one village lived again the old glory, with singing, dancing, feasting, and the raising of a towering totem as a lasting reminder of what once was.In the Name of Confucius
IMDB 0 | May , 2017
One of Canada's top 10 universities and its largest school board found themselves embroiled in a growing global controversy as scholars, parents, and officials question the Confucius Institute program's true purpose.We The North: From Prehistoric to Historic
IMDB 0 | Feb , 2025
A basketball team born out of an egg, in a hockey-crazed city, playing in a baseball stadium, fights for survival and ultimately conquers a nation and the league. This documentary offers an in-depth look at how a fledgling franchise transformed into a cultural phenomenon, uniting communities and reshaping Canada's identity. The Raptors' story is the ultimate underdog tale, with an unprecedented look into the team's global impact and lasting influence across Canada and beyond.Inbound
IMDB 5.5 | Feb , 2025
Documenting the shared trajectory between Canada’s rise as a global basketball powerhouse and the circumstances that helped shape the country’s multicultural identity.1917
IMDB 8 | Dec , 2019
At the height of the First World War, two young British soldiers must cross enemy territory and deliver a message that will stop a deadly attack on hundreds of soldiers.In Bed with an Elephant
IMDB 7 | Oct , 1987
This feature documentary provides a gripping retrospective of United States-Canada relationships through a study of successive presidents and prime ministers. Using archival film footage, it demonstrates that Canadian prime ministers, from John A. Macdonald down, all began their tenures by making overtures to their American counterparts. Attitudes and outcomes have varied widely. The almost comic antipathy between Kennedy and Diefenbaker, for instance, is as palpable here as is the folksy camaraderie of Reagan and Mulroney. Part four of Reckoning: The Political Economy of Canada series.Flyboys
IMDB 6.5 | Sep , 2006
The adventures of the Lafayette Escadrille, young Americans who volunteered for the French military before the U.S. entered World War I, and became the country's first fighter pilots.