23 Films & TV Shows Set In Canada During The 1950s
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My Mother's Letters
Quebec The 1950sIn this very personal and poetic film, veteran documentarian Serge Giguère pores through 100 letters written by his late mother to him and his 15 siblings. In them, she details the trials and tribulations of raising 16 children in rural Quebec, while helping to run a family carpentry business. Through inventive and playful techniques, Giguère brings the stories alive, applying creative approaches to family photographs, archival footage and staged reenactments. He mixes his mother's stories with his own memories and those of his siblings, some of whom hear for the first time what their mother had to say about them. Through these intertwining stories, the film presents not only a testament of a mother's complicated love for her many children, but also offers an intimate look at 1950s working class Quebec. - Aisha Jamal (Hot Docs Film Festival)
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Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked the World
🇨🇦 Canada Louisiana North Dakota The 1930s The 1950s The 1970s The 1960s The 1980sDocumentary about the role of Native Americans in popular music history, a little-known story built around the incredible lives and careers of the some of the greatest music legends.
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Mission Kathmandu: The Adventures of Nelly & Simon
🇳🇵 Nepal Quebec The 1950sQuebec, 1956. The impulsive and headstrong Nelly Maloye, a novice private eye, joins the methodical and pragmatic Simon Picard, a research scientist in a dubious quest to prove the existence of the elusive Yeti. The brave-hearted heroes come face-to-face with countless dangers during their trek through the heart of the Himalayas.
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Maudie
Nova Scotia The 1950s The 1930sTriumph epitomizes adversity — Canadian folk artist Maud Lewis falls in love with a fishmonger while working for him as a live-in housekeeper.
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Pirate's Passage
Nova Scotia The 1950sSet in 1952 Grey Rocks – a centuries old town that was famous 250 years ago as a favored port of pirates – Pirate’s Passage follows the story of 12-year-old Jim. Fraught by the death of his father and forced to endure schoolyard bullying each day, Jim manages to carry on, buoyed by his optimistic imagination and fueled by his sense of adventure. The sudden arrival of Captain Johnson, whose small sailboat has been thrown off course by a storm, changes Jim’s life. The Captain quickly becomes a mentor and friend to Jim, giving him extraordinary lessons in self-reliance and determination. Soon, Jim develops a liberating self-assurance that so deeply touches the Captain that he allows Jim to see evidence that the Captain may be more than meets the eye. Is Captain Johnson the same Charles Johnson who was a pirate there two hundred years ago? The lad goes with him on a literal journey into the past to find out and emerges able to navigate the course of his life.
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Legend No. 17
🇷🇺 Russia Quebec 🇪🇸 Spain Hokkaido Prefecture The 1970s The 1960s The 1950sBiopic of Russian ice hockey legend Valeri Kharlamov from early childhood, rising to the pinnacle of the sport and his untimely death
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On the Road
Quebec The 1950s The 1940sThe best teacher is experience. — Dean and Sal are the portrait of the Beat Generation. Their search for "It" results in a fast paced, energetic roller coaster ride with highs and lows throughout the U.S.
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Pour l'amour de Dieu
Quebec The 1950sMontréal, 1959. In the classroom of Sister Cecilia, Leonie (aged 11) first met Father Malachy, a young Dominican father who has come to visit his school. It is love at first sight for this lonely and dreamy child who took refuge in religion to escape a mother who is emotional and too worried. But there is also love at first sight between Sister Cecilia and Father Malachy. Between human love and the love of God, which will prevail? Written by
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Edwin Boyd: Citizen Gangster
Ontario The 1950sGangster. Media darling. Model citizen. — Based on a real WWII vet and family man turned bank robber. Disillusioned by his post war circumstances, Eddie Boyd is torn between the need to provide for his young family and an unfulfilled dream to head to Hollywood to become a star. He discovers a way to do both, robbing banks Hollywood style, but his dream leads him down a path of danger and tragedy.
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The Necessities of Life
Quebec Northwest Territories The 1950sIn 1952, an Inuit hunter named Tivii with tuberculosis leaves his northern home and family to go recuperate at a sanatorium in Quebec City. Uprooted, far from his loved ones, unable to speak French and faced with a completely alien world, he becomes despondent. When he refuses to eat and expresses a wish to die, his nurse, Carole, comes to the realization that Tivii's illness is not the most serious threat to his well-being. She arranges to have a young orphan, Kaki, transferred to the institution. The boy is also sick, but has experience with both worlds and speaks both languages. By sharing his culture with Kaki and opening it up to others, Tivii rediscovers his pride and energy. Ultimately he also rediscovers hope through a plan to adopt Kaki, bring him home and make him part of his family
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Hannibal Rising
🇫🇷 France 🇱🇹 Lithuania 🇩🇪 Germany 🇨🇦 Canada The 1950s The 1940sIt started with revenge. — The story of the early, murderous roots of the cannibalistic killer, Hannibal Lecter – from his hard-scrabble Lithuanian childhood, where he witnesses the repulsive lengths to which hungry soldiers will go to satiate themselves, through his sojourn in France, where as a med student he hones his appetite for the kill.
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Saint Ralph
Massachusetts Ontario The 1950sHe's hoping for a miracle. He doesn't have a prayer. — This Canadian made comedy/drama, set in Hamilton, Ontario in 1954, is a sweet and - at times - goofy story that becomes increasingly poignant as the minutes tick by. It's the fictional tale of a wayward 9th grader, Ralph (Adam Butcher), who is secretly living on his own while his widowed, hospitalized mother remains immersed in a coma. Frequently in trouble with Father Fitzpatrick (Gordon Pinsent), the principal of his all-boys, Catholic school, Ralph is considered something of a joke among peers until he decides to pull off a miracle that could save his mother, i.e., winning the Boston Marathon. Coached by a younger priest and former runner, Father Hibbert (Campbell Scott), whose cynicism has been lifted by the boy's pure hope, Ralph applies himself to his unlikely mission, fending off naysayers and getting help along a very challenging path from sundry allies and friends.
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The Rocket: The Legend of Rocket Richard
Quebec The 1950s The 1940s The 1930sIn the late 1930s, a young machinist named Maurice Richard distinguished himself as a ice hockey player of preternatural talent. Although that was enough to get him into the Montreal Canadiens, his frequent injuries cost him the confidence of his team and the fans. In the face of these doubts, Richard eventually shows the kind of aggressive and skillful play that would make him one of the greatest players of all time as "The Rocket." However for all his success, Richard and his fellow French Canadians face constant discrimination in a league dominated by the English speaking. Although a man of few words, Richard begins to speak his own mind about the injustice which creates a organizational conflict that would culminate in his infamous 1955 season suspension that sparks an ethnic riot in protest. In the face of these challenges, Richard must decide who exactly is he playing for.
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Evel Knievel
Montana Ohio Nevada Ontario The 1970s The 1960s The 1950sLive hard. Ride fast. Regret nothing. — Legendary daredevil Robbie "Evel" Knievel (George Eads) is profiled in this action-packed biopic helmed by John Badham. Long before extreme sports became ubiquitous, the hard-living exhibitionist vaulted his motorcycle over steep canyons, crates of venomous snakes and snarling cougars. But as Knievel amassed wealth and world records (along with 35 broken bones), his taste for liquor and ladies equaled his appetite for adventure.
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The Snow Walker
Northwest Territories The 1950sA bush pilot in nothern Canada who with the aid of modernity thinks he can handle it all & knows it all. After reluctantly agreeing to transport a local indian girl to a medical facility his light plane crashes & they have to survive whilst finding their way back to civilization. Along the journey the man finds a new respect for the native ways as they battle to survive the elements.
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The Hurricane
Ontario New Jersey The 1950sHis greatest fight was for justice. — The story of Rubin "Hurricane" Carter, a boxer wrongly imprisoned for murder, and the people who aided in his fight to prove his innocence.
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The Confessional
Quebec The 1950sThe year is 1952, in Quebec City. Rachel (16), unmarried and pregnant, works in the church. Filled with shame, she unburdens her guilt to a young priest, under the confidentiality of the confessional. In the present year of 1989, Pierre Lamontagne has returned to Quebec to attend his father's funeral. He meets up with his adopted brother, Marc, who has begun questioning his identity and has embarked on a quest for his roots that would lead them to the Quebec of the 1950s. Past and present converge in a complex web of intrigue where the answer to the mystery lies.
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True Confections
Manitoba The 1950sA witty teen tests men, morals and manners as her family tries to marry her off in 1958 Canada.
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The Last Winter
Manitoba The 1950sTells the story of a young man's struggle to keep his world from changing. Placed in the rural setting of the mid 1950s.
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My American Cousin
British Columbia The 1950s"He was a charming runaway in a big, fancy car who dazzled me completely..." — My American Cousin is a Canadian drama film, released in 1985. Written and directed by Sandy Wilson based on her own childhood, the film stars Margaret Langrick as Sandy Wilcox, a pre-teen girl growing up on a ranch in rural Penticton, British Columbia in the late 1950s. Sandy's longing to be treated as an adult is roused even further when her older American cousin Butch Walker (John Wildman) comes for a visit. The cast also includes Richard Donat, Jane Mortifee, Babz Chula and Camille Henderson.
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The Snowshoers
Quebec The 1950sThis short documentary records the celebration and ritual surrounding a snowshoe competition in Sherbrooke in the late 1950s. The film marked the beginning of a new approach to reality in documentary and prefigures the trademark style of the NFB's newly formed French Unit. Today, Les raquetteurs is considered a precursor to the birth of direct cinema.
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Zero Hour!
British Columbia Manitoba The 1950sIn 1950s Canada, during a commercial flight, the pilots and some passengers suffer food poisoning, thus forcing an ex-WW2 fighter pilot to try to land the airliner in heavy fog.
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Island in the Sky
Newfoundland and Labrador The 1950sHe Fought Every Futy of Man and Mountain To Get Where His Woman Was! — A C-47 transport plane, named the Corsair, makes a forced landing in the frozen wastes of Labrador, and the plane's pilot, Captain Dooley, must keep his men alive in deadly conditions while waiting for rescue.
