Showing 41 results

Documentary about the five-day international music festival in Montréal, where artists from Senegal, Tunisia and other West African countries share the stages of the city with drum ensembles and singers from Québec. Not produced by Kensington Communications. Series contains distribution copies of the film.

This biographical documentary of Canadian folk musician Stan Rogers is still considered the definitive portrait of the man and his music. Robert Lang produced and directed.

From Robert Lang: “This film was produced at the transition time from film to linear video. As a result, it was an unusual blend of original 16mm film, Betacam video and stock footage in which we had to find various rare sources of live concert audio from the Philadelphia Folk Festival and use a very early form of digital editing to sync up film and audio material from different sources.”

The 3-camera shoot of the Stan Rogers Tribute Concert (coordinated by Mitch Podolak) features well-known musicians playing the music of Stan Rogers at Winnipeg's West End Cultural Centre, produced by Kensington for the One Warm Line documentary. The concert had some gems of interpretation - especially by Spirit of the West, Connie Kaldor, Stephen Fearing, James Keelaghan - that were never used in the finished film.

Series includes source tapes on Betacam SP, concert demos on DVD, Stan Rogers concert audio ¼ in. open reel audio tape, production stills, graphics for the film’s poster, retail DVDs, and textual records including news clippings about the film, correspondence with film festivals, and promotional materials.

An intimate 1 hour documentary about the children of alcoholic parents and the impacts of their childhood throughout their lives. “On the run” is a shorter 30 minute educational version of the one-hour doc “Out of the Past.”

Series includes A+B rolls, interpositive and dupe negative versions, and answer prints on 16mm; protection copies of audio mix and music on ¼ in. open reel audio, and transfers to 1 inch video. Textual records include release announcements, press coverage, synopses, screening invitations, correspondence with film festivals, news clippings, and media releases.

Stepdancing is a documentary about divorced parents and life with their children and new partners. The film won the Chris Award at the Columbus International Film Festival 1987 and the Blue Ribbon Award at the American Film & Video Festival 1987.

This documentary about the loss of crop plant biodiversity and its major impact on the future of our food was produced and directed by Robert Lang in 1985 for CBC Nature of Things. “Seeds,” the shorter 30-minute version of the film, was distributed broadly for education.

Seeds won the Magna Cum Laude Award at the Medikinale Interntionale Parma 1989, the Silver Apple Award at the National Educational Film & Video Festival 1989, and the Gold Award at the Berlin Agricultural Film Festival 1990.

Kensington Communications produced over 50 public service announcements for SeedChange (formerly USC Canada/Unitarian Service Committee) during the 1980s and 1990s, all directed and produced by Robert Lang. These short advertisements, shot on location in South Asia, featured on-camera appearances by Bruce Cockburn and June Callwood.

This series also includes short PSA videos (15-60 seconds) as well as longer films produced in relation to the USC advertisements:
Moving the Banyan Tree (1984) is a half hour documentary produced, directed and shot by Robert Lang in Bangladesh for USC. The French version “Sur le Chemin de Thakuragon” is also included.

River of Sand is a one-hour documentary that promotes the work of USC Canada. Written, directed, and produced by Robert Lang, it follows musician Bruce Cockburn as he travelled throughout Mali, discovering the music, people, and environmental challenges. It was broadcast on TVO, Vision, and other networks in Canada. A couple of Bruce’s songs on Breakfast in New Orleans Dinner in Timbuktu were inspired by his travels here. It features impromptu performances with Grammy award-winning Ali Farka Touré and awesome kora master Toumani Diabaté.

Path to Nepal is a 22 minute photographic document of Bruce Cockburn's journey to the remote Simla region of Nepal shot by photographer Tom Kelly and directed by Robert Lang. Kelly’s photographs are presented as a slideshow & video narrative story of the journey.

A Great Tree Has Fallen is a documentary about the traditional 8-day funeral ceremonies and “enstoolment” of the king of the Ashanti people in Ghana – the Asantehene. Narrated by the writer and art historian Roy Sieber, and is the first film Robert Lang made. Series includes 1 distribution copy and promo sheet.

The Robert Lang Fonds (2018.016), also held by the Media Commons Archives contains A+B rolls for A Great Tree Has Fallen, 2 ¾ in. U-matic copies of the film, and 16mm prints of the short film Elmina, which was shot during the filming of A Great Tree Has Fallen.

Series includes two original negative reels on 16mm for an Indian film labelled “Kanan (Kanan Jani)” and produced by Sudhakar. The title does not appear to correspond to any released films, and may be a working title.

An intimate documentary about the Nuu-chah-nulth artist, Joe David, produced and directed by Robert Lang. The film was produced with a Canada Council Grant and screened at festivals around North America and on the CBC.

Joe David works in a variety of media and is a master carver. He is a leader in the preservation and reinvention of Northwest coast indigenous art. The documentary features David working to carve a magnificent wolf headdress from a block of cedar, and its use as a ceremonial mask worn by the artist himself in a haunting dance concludes the documentary.
Series includes internegative version on 16mm film, copies of the finished film on open reel video and ¾ in. U-matic, and photographs of Joe David’s family and a totem pole raising.

The Robert Lang Fonds (2018.016), also held by the Media Commons Archives contains release prints and a check print on 16mm for Joe David: Spirit of the Mask.

This CBC documentary featured the Czech-born surrealist painter Vaclav Vaca. The film was produced by Film Arts & Seawolf Films with camera by Robert Lang. Series includes 1 distribution print and promo pages for the film.

Childhood's End was Kensington’s first production; the company was started in 1980 to produce the film for TVO and to distribute films for educational markets. The film was used for many years in courses about mental illness and youth suicide. It won the Jury Award at the Yorkton Short Film & Video Festival in 1981.

Series includes distribution versions of the film, promo pages, and study guides.

Producer/director Robert Lang and cinematographer Guy Clarkson accompany singer/songwriter Bruce Cockburn as he returns to the spectacular Himalayan country of Nepal after twenty years away.

Series includes shoot tapes on MiniDV and shoot tapes, rough cuts, fine cuts, music, voiceovers, and other versions on DVD.

City Sonic is a smartphone app and website that tells the story of Toronto’s music scene through a series of 20 short films associated with legendary venues. Featured artists include Brendan Canning of Broken Social Scene, Cancer Bats, Tyler Stewart of Barenaked Ladies, Sarah Slean, Fucked Up, Justin Rutledge, Danko Jones, Divine Brown, and Geddy Lee of Rush.

This series does not include the app itself, which is no longer available, but includes the featured videos and related textual records. Series contains funding applications, tax credit applications, and correspondence. DVDs in this series contain the episodes, mixes, graphic materials, animations, archival footage, and digital photographs.

This series was filmed with rare access to behind-the-scenes curatorial work and the collections of 22 of the greatest museums in the world during three seasons. It was a global hit, narrated by Colm Feore, distributed by BBC and broadcast in over 70 countries worldwide.

The History Channel commissioned a fourth season Museum Secrets, which was set to feature the British Museum, Rijksmuseum, Danish Museum and others. But the channel had just decided to pivot their brand into less history and more 'scripted reality' shows, and Museum Secrets was not renewed. This series includes research, development, and planning records for season four.

This series includes shoot tapes for all episodes on Professional Disk (XDCAM); rough and fine cuts, preview versions, and audio elements on DVD; and various broadcast versions of episodes on HDCAM and DVD.

Textual records include extensive research, location and appearance releases, correspondence with curators and historians, funding applications, tax credit applications, development documents, travel information, budgets and financial statements, cast & crew agreements, and scripts and transcripts.

Records related to the Museum Secrets interactive website and ROM iPhone app include development documents, marketing plans, correspondence and agreements with vendors, mock-ups, and web-exclusive content on DVD.

Millennial filmmaker and actor Dylan Playfair goes on a journey to find out why his generation isn’t turning up at the polls. The feature documentary was produced by Kensington Communications and Triple Threat Films for TVO, CPAC and other broadcasters.

Series includes TVO broadcast version on HDCAM and travel expense records.

This sports science investigation reveals who wins when the greatest athletes – present and past – compete against each other on a level playing field. It is a companion to Kensington’s 2018 film on winter sports: Champions vs. Legends.
The Equalizer is co-produced by Kensington and Berlin Producers (Germany) for CBC-TV’s The Nature of Things (Canada), SRC (French Canada), Ici Explora (French Canada), ZDF (Germany), Arte (Germany/France), and other international broadcasters.

It was nominated for Best Sports Program at the Canadian Screen Awards 2016, placed as finalist at the International Sport Film Festival in Palermo, and a Platinum REMI winner at Worldfest Houston.

Series includes broadcast versions of the film on HDCAM and DVD, scripts and transcripts, appearance and location releases, call sheets and production documents, and agreements.

This series contains business and operational records for Kensington Communications. Includes records relating to office rental and management, film rentals and sales, royalty reports, general publicity, organizational memberships, staffing records, financial reports, highlight reels of Kensington films, and videos that are not clearly associated with specific productions.

Raw Opium is a documentary about the global opium trade that aims to challenge assumptions about addiction and the war on drugs. It was produced as a 2 x 1 hour documentary for English and French broadcast in Canada and its feature length version for ZDF/Arte and for screening in theatres in North America.

The film was allegedly used by policy-makers in Mexico (former president Vicente Fox) and Switzerland (former president Micheline Calmy-Rey) to inform legislation in their countries and by the UN commission looking into the decriminalization of drugs.

Series includes source footage on Professional Disk (XDCAM), DVD, and MiniDV; archival/stock/reference footage on Betacam, DVD, and HDCAM; and various broadcast versions on HDCAM, Betacam, and DVD.

Textual records include transcripts, appearance releases, research, tax credit applications, funding applications, development documents, budgets and financial statements, correspondence and agreements with broadcasters, shoot schedules, and some promotional materials.

A documentary series hosted by Craig Kielburger about celebrities who are working to achieve social change featuring Richard Branson and his daughter Holly, Magic Johnson, Nelly Furtado, Rick Hansen, Roméo Dallaire, and former child soldier Michel Chikwanine.

Series includes research, shoot documents, episodes on HDCAM and DVD, and 5 external hard drives with audio and video elements: shoot tapes, edits, and various distribution versions.

Series consists of correspondence and funding applications for the proposed documentary series National Secrets.

One man’s journey to understand his personal risk factors, and the societal risks we all share. Hosted and produced by Robert Lang. Risk Factor was produced in association with TVO, Canal D and Knowledge BC in collaboration with the TELUS Fund. It premiered on TVO August 2017 and is distributed internationally under the title The Truth About Risk by TVF in the UK.

The documentary was accompanied by a campaign to increase the public understanding of risk, supported by the Risk Factor film and a Kensington-produced mobile app: Risk Navigator.

Series includes a copy of the TVO broadcast version on HDCAM, tape transcripts, broadcast agreements, news clippings, and promotional materials for the film and app.

The Shadow of Gold is a global investigation of gold mining and the gold trade on our economy, environment and conflicts. It was filmed in China, Peru, Canada, the U.S., London, Dubai, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, and distributed as a feature documentary and two-part mini-series.

The Shadow of Gold is a film by Denis Delestrac, Robert Lang and Sally Blake, written by Allen Booth and Denis Delestrac. An international Canada-France coproduction, the film is produced by Robert Lang (Kensington Communications, Canada) and Sally Blake (Films à Cinq and CAPA Presse, France).

Series includes research by Yvette Lang on CD-ROMs and paper, and preliminary interviews on microcassette for an unproduced documentary titled Life in the Crisis Zone.

Earth Journal with Richard Leakey is a documentary series in which anthropologist Richard Leakey travels to locations around the world, examining diverse attempts to solve environmental problems. Kensington Communications did not produce the series, but it is similar to Kensington’s environmentally-focused documentaries.

Series includes two VHS tapes: “Earth Journal w/ Richard Leakey Openings, Promos + 3 Shows,” and “Earth Journal Rene Haller; Jy Chiperzak; Wangari Mathai.”

This documentary about Pacific Rim National Park Reserve in British Columbia was a pilot commissioned for Discovery Channel for a series about Canadian Parks. Kensington Communications was not selected to produce the series.

Series contains shoot tapes and video masters on Betacam SP, production stills on mounted 35mm slides, and textual records including tax credit certification and correspondence with distributors.

This short documentary features Martin Langlois, an autistic 22 year-old who is transferred to Maison Emmanuel therapeutic centre when his parents can no longer care for him. The film one a Hot Docs Vision TV Humanitarian Award in 1997.

Series includes prints of production photographs and sub-master versions on Betacam SP and Digital Betacam.

Exhibit A: Secrets of Forensic Science is a true crime series focused on the role of forensic science in solving real crimes. The show blended police accounts and documentary interviews with dramatic reenactments, narrated by Graham Greene.
Exhibit A aired 65 episodes across 5 seasons from 1997-2003 on Discovery Channel in Canada and TLC in the US. It was also syndicated worldwide, and different broadcast versions of Exhibit A episodes are included in this series.
“Pièces à Conviction” is the French version of “Exhibit A”
Exhibit A won a Gemini Award in 2001 for Best Photography in an Informational Program, and won a CSC Award of Excellence in 2000 for Documentary Cinematography. The program also received 8 Gemini nominations.

Series includes textual and photographic records related to Exhibit A. For video records, see Kensington Communications & Creative Anarchy Fonds, 2021.007.

Textual records include funding applications, tax credit applications, agreements with distributors, cast & crew contracts, budgets, publicity news clippings, and correspondence. Series also includes promotional photographs, production stills, and crew party photos.

My Beat is the third of four documentaries that Kensington Communications has filmed with Bruce Cockburn. This intimate film features Cockburn moving house from Toronto to Montreal, spending time at his girlfriend’s house in Vermont, recording a new album in the studio, and performing at a live benefit concert for Afghan refugees at the Air Canada Centre with Alanis Morissette.

Series includes tape transcripts, shoot tapes and archival footage on Betacam SP and MiniDV, source and mixed audio on DAT and DA8 cassettes, photos and production stills, international master on Betacam SP, and retail versions on DVD.

Port Hope: A Question of Power is an episode of CBC’s The Nature of Things that investigates the effects of nuclear waste on the community of Port Hope, Ontario. It was produced by Telewerx, a now-defunct production company, and included in this collection via Robert Lang’s friend and colleague Sheila Petzold. Lang also lives in Port Hope.

Series includes source tapes on HDCAM and Professional Disc, audio and a broadcast version on DVD, and an external hard drive with clips and source footage for the documentary.

Documentary featuring the Mariposa Folk Festival on the occasion of its 30th anniversary. Artists include Daniel Lanois, Emmylou Harris, Buddy Guy, Violent Femmes, Dixie Hummingbirds, Mahlathini and the Mahotella Queens, Murray McLaughlin and many others, including a very rare set by Canadian singer/songwriter Willie P. Bennett, most of whom are also interviewed for the film. The concert was filmed with 6 camera remote setup and 24 track recording sound.
Audio in this series includes M+E and concert/interview source audio, mixed masters, audio transferred from archival sources, on ¼ in. open reel audio tape, mixed masters on ½ in. open reel audio tape, unmixed masters on 1-inch open reel audio, and 24-track masters on 2 inch open reels.
Series also includes shoot tapes on ¾ in. U-matic and Betacam SP, line cuts on Betacam, VHS, and U-matic, and broadcast and distribution versions on Betacam and open reel video. Production stills and concert photos are available in prints and 35mm mounted slides.

72 Hours is a follow-up to Exhibit A, focusing on the premise that clues found during the first 72 hours of an investigation are key to solving crimes. The series was co-produced by Kensington Communications, Meech Grant Productions, and Creative Anarchy, and hosted by Graig Morris, Diane D’Aquila, and Ray Landry.

72 Hours consists of 45 episodes aired across three seasons. The series premiered on CBC (in English) and Canal D (in French). It was broadcast on TLC in the US, Bold, CourtTV, ichannel, and National Geographic Channel Canada, and on networks around the world. “Life of a Crime” is the American title of “72 Hours” for TLC, and “Indices pour l'éternité” is the French title.
In 2005 and 2007, 72 Hours: True Crime was awarded World Medals for docudrama at the New York Festivals.

Series includes textual and photographic records related to 72 Hours. For video records, see Kensington Communications & Creative Anarchy Fonds, 2021.007.

Textual records include invoices, cast & crew contracts, funding applications, include tax credit applications, agreements with distributors, budgets and financial statements, and correspondence. Series also includes promotional hat and clothing, media clippings, and production stills.

Series includes research, correspondence, a onesheet, and a pilot on DVD for the unproduced series Was Justice Denied? which aimed to investigate old crimes.

In 1972, five young film students made a documentary about the Sayisi Dene, an Indigenous band in Northern Manitoba that had been forcibly relocated from their ancestral home. 31 years later, three of the original students, now seasoned filmmakers, revisit the Sayisi Dene as they continue to struggle to put their tragic past behind them. The film explores the band’s efforts to keep their values and traditions in balance with the realities of the 21st century. Almost Home was co-produced and directed by long-time friends and colleagues, Robert Lang, Sheila Petzold and Mike Fuller.

The documentary aired on CBC Nature of Things, APTN, Knowledge Network and SCN. It won Best Social/Political Documentary and the Kathleen Shannon Award at the 2004 Yorkton Short Film and Video Festival.
Series includes source tapes on Betacam SP and MiniDV, archival & stock footage, various broadcast versions on Betacam, and production stills on slides and DVDs/CDs.

Textual materials include funding applications, agreements, tax credit applications, budgets and cost reports, agreements and correspondence with broadcasters and distributors, transcripts, and other records.

Pitch materials for a proposed children’s series featuring animals that go on adventures and discuss environmental lessons. Series includes sample Script, series outline, treatments, and one sheets on paper and DVD.

This one-hour children's television special is the story of a young girl who slips into an enchanted world of trolls and dragons and finds herself on stage in a magic theatre during a performance by some of the biggest names in children's entertainment: Robert Munsch, Fred Penner and Rockapella. The special combines narrative storytelling with a multi camera live performance. The Biggest Little Ticket won the Award of Excellence, Best Variety, from Alliance for Children and Television 1995 and the Golden Sheaf Award for Best Children’s/Variety from the Yorkton Film and TV Festival 1994. It was nominated for a Gemini Award for Best Children’s Program 1995, and was an Official Selection at the Banff Television Festival 1995.

Series contains shoot tapes on Betacam SP, audio masters on 2 inch, 1 inch, and ¼ inch open reel audio, broadcast and distribution versions on open reel video and DVD, and production stills.

Series contains 8 Betacam SP tapes labelled “Parliamentary Hearings for Designing Foods” that do not appear to be related to a Kensington Production.

One-hour documentary about the surgical separation of conjoined twins from Pakistan. Separate Lives won a Gemini Award for Best Science, Technology, Nature and Environment Documentary in 1998 and the half-hour version that aired on BBC 1 was the highest rated show that year, generating much discussion and debate.

Series includes source tapes on Betacam SP and VHS, voice overs on DAT tapes, prints of production stills and family photos, transcripts on 3.5 inch floppy disks, and various master versions on Betacam. Textual records include transcripts, tax credit applications, and correspondence with distributors. Tapes labelled “Pakistan Source Tapes” were filmed by a local crew in Lahore, Pakistan and not a Kensington crew.

Sacred Balance is a 4-part documentary series hosted by David Suzuki and based on his book of the same name. It was filmed on 6 continents in many unusual locations from major cities to remote communities. Major scientists, philosophers, and Indigenous elders were interviewed, including E.O. Wilson, James Lovelock, Brian Swimme, Julie Payette, and Veer Bahdra Mishra.

Sacred Balance was the first documentary program in Canada filmed and delivered in HD. It won a Platinum Award for Ecology, Environment, and Conservation at WorldFest Houston 2004, a Science & Society Prize at the International Television Science Programme Festival Paris 2003, and Golden Sheaf Awards for Science & Nature and Best Sound at the Yorkton Short Film & Video Festival. It was accompanied by a multimedia interactive website.

Series includes source tapes on HDCAM, Betacam (some original & some transfers from HDCAM), Super 16mm (in South African mines that were too humid for HDCAM tape), and title sequences and graphic elements on HDCAM. Also includes an external hard drive with .mov files, various broadcast versions in English and French on HDCAM, Betacam, and DVD, audio for broadcast versions, music masters, and voice overs on DA8 tapes and CD.

Textual records include tape logs, complete transcripts, purchase orders, invoices, correspondence with festivals, correspondence and agreements with broadcasters, funding applications, tax credit applications, financial statements, permits, budgets, cost reports, contracts with cast & crew, and other records.

Series also contains production stills and promotional materials: booklets, shirts, and fleece jackets.

Diamond Road was produced as 3 x 1 hour documentary for English and French broadcast in Canada and internationally and edited into a feature length version for ZDF/Arte and for screening at festivals. It was filmed around the world and was accompanied by Diamond Road Online, an interactive website that featured nearly 200 short documentary segments.

Diamond Road won a Gemini Award for Best Documentary Series 2008, a Platinum REMI Award at Houston Worldfest for Best Feature Documentary 2008, and a Canadian New Media Award for Best News Information 2008.

Series includes shoot tapes on HDCAM, Digital Betacam, and Betacam SP, mixed audio on CD, rough and fine cuts and other versions on DVD, various broadcast versions on Betacam, DVD, and HDCAM, and .mov files on external hard drives.

Textual materials include tax credit applications, funding applications, budgets and financial statements, research, location shooting information, correspondence and agreements with broadcasters, and development documents for Diamond Road Online.

This fonds consists of 38 series corresponding to documentary films and television series, the majority of which were produced by Kensington Communications. For most productions, many different elements are represented: source tapes, audio, edits, rough cuts, fine cuts, and distribution versions for various broadcasters and international audiences.
The fonds also contains textual records relating to Kensington’s productions. Most textual records relate to productions filmed after 2000. Textual records may include research, funding applications, agreements with broadcasters, cast and crew contracts, scripts and transcripts, call sheets, schedules, insurance, budgets, mock-ups, correspondence, and other documents related to production.
Several series also include photographs and graphic material related to documentaries and tv series such as promotional photographs and photographs taken during filming.
For productions that have associated websites or mobile apps, the relevant series may contain planning documents, correspondence, mock-ups, budgets, site content, videos, and other records relating to the creation of apps or websites. However, this fonds does not contain archived versions of the websites and apps themselves.
A few of the series in this fonds represent Kensington productions that were unproduced or did not proceed past a pilot.

1. Childhood’s End (1981)
2. Vaclav Vaca: Fantastic Visions (1982)
3. Joe David: Spirit of the Mask (1982)
4. Kanan (1982)
5. A Great Tree Has Fallen (1982)
6. USC Films & Promos: Bangladesh From the River, Moving the Banyan Tree/Sur Le Chemin de Tahkuragaon (1984), Path to Nepal (1987)
7. Fragile Harvest (short version: Seeds) (1986)
8. Stepdancing (1986)
9. Out of the Past (short version: On the Run) (1989)
10. One Warm Line: The Legacy of Stan Rogers (1990)
11. Sacred Rhythm/Rythme du Monde (1990) Jenfilms
12. Mariposa: Under a Stormy Sky (1990)
13. Earth Journal with Richard Leakey (1991)
14. The Biggest Little Ticket (1993)
15. "Parliamentary Hearings for Designing Foods" (1994, unproduced)
16. Pacific Rim: A Park and Its People (1995)
17. A Place in the World (1996)
18. Separate Lives (1996)
19. Exhibit A: Secrets of Forensic Science (1997-2002) (Textual and graphic files only – see Creative Anarchy Fonds for Exhibit A videos)
20. My Beat: The Life & Times of Bruce Cockburn (2001)
21. Sacred Balance/ Mystérieuse Planète (2002)
22. Almost Home: A Sayisi Dene Journey (working title Full Circle) (2003)
23. 72 Hours: True Crime (2003-2007)
24. Was Justice Denied? (2005, unproduced)
25. Port Hope: A Question of Power (2005)
26. Flap! (2006, unproduced)
27. Diamond Road (2007)
28. Life in the Crisis Zone (Unproduced, 2008)
29. Return to Nepal (2008)
30. City Sonic App (2009)
31. Raw Opium (2010)
32. Museum Secrets (2010-2014)
33. Shameless Idealists (2012)
34. National Secrets (unproduced, 2015)
35. The Drop: Why Young People Don’t Vote (2015)
36. Risk Factor (2017)
37. The Equalizer Shorts (2017)
38. The Shadow of Gold (2019)