CM Magazine: Moments of History: Canada Vignettes.

________________ CM . . . . Volume V Number 19 . . . . May 21, 1999

Moments of History: Canada Vignettes.

Montreal, PQ: National Film Board of Canada, 1996.
34 min., VHS, $14.95.
Order Number C0179 407.

Grades 2 and up / Ages 7 and up.
Review by Ian Stewart.

**** /4

This collection of 20 wonderful NFB vignettes have all been seen before. They are a common thread running through a typical Canadian lifetime of CBC watching.

These snippets of our past are not presented in any particular historical or thematic order. The story of Cape Breton mining is followed by a vignette examining the dark recesses of Canada's archeological past which, in turn, is followed by the story of Lady Frances Simpson's piano crossing the muskeg lakes of Northern Ontario to the HBC's Lower Fort Garry north of Winnipeg.

Whether these vignettes have inspired or will motivate generations of Canadian students to become historians is doubtful. However, they are fun, and each speaks to the diverse physical, cultural and economic factors that have come together to create our confused but vital country.

Highly Recommended.

Ian Stewart is a regular contributor to CM and to the book review column of the Winnipeg Free Press.

To comment on this title or this review, send mail to cm@mts.net.

Published by
The Manitoba Library Association
ISSN 1201-9364

TABLE OF CONTENTS FOR THIS ISSUE - MAY 21, 1999.