Camera Canada was a Canadian

Television in Canada

Television in Canada officially began with the opening of the nation's first television stations in Montreal and Toronto in 1952. As with most media in Canada, the television industry, and the television programming available in that country, are strongly influenced by the American media, perhaps...

 documentary television series which aired on CBC Television

CBC Television

CBC Television is a Canadian television network owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the national public broadcaster.Although the CBC is supported by public funding, the television network supplements this funding with commercial advertising revenue, in contrast to CBC Radio which are...

 from 1961 to 1963.

Premise

This was an occasional series of documentaries concerning modern Canadian history, filmed by various producers. It was inspired by the results of various CBC documentaries broadcast in mid-1960.

Scheduling

The series was randomly scheduled approximately once per month between 13 November 1961 and 14 January 1963. Camera Canada episodes were generally hour-long productions which were frequently broadcast on Mondays.

Episodes

• "The Annanacks" (René Bonnière producer/director; Lloyd Bochner
  Lloyd Bochner
  Lloyd Wolfe Bochner was a Canadian actor, usually playing the role of suave, rich leading men.- Career :...
  
   narrator; Crawley Films company), featuring an Inuit community
• "Big Country" (Norman Caton; Len Peterson
  Len Peterson
  Leonard Byron Peterson was a Canadian playwright, screenwriter and novelist. His career started in 1939 when he sold a script to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation....
  
   writer; Don Francks
  Don Francks
  Donald Harvey Francks or Iron Buffalo is a Canadian actor, vocalist and jazz musician.- Life and work :Francks was born in Vancouver, British Columbia. He is a drummer, poet, native nations champion, motorcyclist, author and peace activist...
  
   narrator), concerning a western Canadian cattle drive
• "Boys Village" (Ron Kelly director), concerning a reform school
• "Camera on Canada" (Gene Lawrence director)
• "Campus in the Clouds" (Norman Caton producer), featuring the Banff School of Fine Arts
  Banff Centre
  The Banff Centre, formerly known as The Banff Centre for Continuing Education, is an arts, cultural, and educational institution and conference complex located in Banff, Alberta...
  
  
• "The Changing Island" (J. Frank Willis producer/host)
• "Ciao Maria" (Ron Kelly; Bruno Gerussi
  Bruno Gerussi
  Bruno Gerussi was a Canadian television actor born in Medicine Hat, Alberta, best known for the lead role in the CBC Television series The Beachcombers...
  
   narrator), featuring Italians in Toronto
• "False Faces" (René Bonnière producer/director; Crawley Films company), featuring an Iroquois-Huron ceremony in 1961. Bonnière later made a fictional feature film with Crawley Films called Amanita Pestilens
  Amanita Pestilens
  Amanita Pestilens is a 1963 Canadian film produced by F. R. Crawley, directed by René Bonnière. It was "the first Canadian feature film to be shot in both English and French with the same set of actors" and which included an early career performance by Geneviève Bujold along with performances by...
  
  (released in 1963).
• "Gold: The Fabulous Years" (Gene Lawrence producer; Hugh Kemp writer)
• "High Arctic Hunter" (Gene Lawrence producer; Doug Wilkinson writer/director)
• "Hockey: An Affectionate Look"
• "Last Summer" (Thom Benson writer), regarding mating in nature
• "The Looking Glass People" (Norman Campbell
  Norman Campbell
  Norman Kenneth Campbell, was a Canadian composer, television producer, and television director best known for co-writing Anne of Green Gables - The Musical....
  
   producer/director; George Salverson writer; Budd Knapp narrator), regarding ballet
• "The Lost Decade" (Ben Maartman writer; Ron Kelly director), concerning the Great Depression
• "The Measure of Man" (Norman Caton producer), featuring the study of the mind and its methods
• "My Enemy" (Bob Orchard; Michael Rothery producers), from the Andre Chamson
  André Chamson
  André Chamson was a French archivist, novelist and essayist. He was the father of the novelist Frédérique Hébrard.-Life:Chamson was born at , Nîmes, Gard....
  
   short story
• "The Opening of the West" (Gene Lawrence producer; Scott Young writer; J. Frank Willis narrator)
• "Pelly Bay" (Ron Kelly), regarding the activities of an Inuit person
• "The Promised Land"
• "The Short Sweet Summer" (Norman Campbell producer; Hugh Kemp writer), featuring the 1963 tour of the National Youth Orchestra of Canada.
• "Tale of Three Cities"
• "The Unknown Country Revisited" (Bruce Hutchinson) - Canadians' express views about their nation. This documentary followed Hutchinson as he revisited parts of Canada he documented in his 1942 book The Unknown Country: Canada and Her People.
• "Upper Canada Village" (Gene Lawrence producer)
• "The View From Geneva" (Maurice Taylor director; Hugh Kemp writer; Princess Grace (Monaco)
  Grace Kelly
  Grace Patricia Kelly was an American actress who, in April 1956, married Rainier III, Prince of Monaco, to become Princess consort of Monaco, styled as Her Serene Highness The Princess of Monaco, and commonly referred to as Princess Grace.After embarking on an acting career in 1950, at the age of...
  
   narrator), featuring the Red Cross
• "Wilderness" (Norman Caton), regarding the wildernesses of Alberta, British Columbia and the Yukon; a plane crash killed Caton and two camera operators during production of this documentary.
• "The World of Bobby Hull" (Scott Young writer)
• A documentary comparing current and 1930s university graduates (Hugh MacLennan
  Hugh MacLennan
  John Hugh MacLennan, CC, CQ was a Canadian author and professor of English at McGill University. He won five Governor General's Awards and a Royal Bank Award.-Family and childhood:...
  
  )
• A feature on the newly-created Canada Council
  Canada Council
  The Canada Council for the Arts, commonly called the Canada Council, is a Crown Corporation established in 1957 to act as an arts council of the government of Canada, created to foster and promote the study and enjoyment of, and the production of works in, the arts. It funds Canadian artists and...
  
   and its first director, A. W. Trueman
  Albert Trueman
  Albert William Trueman, OC, FRSC was a teacher, professor, cultural and university administrator.-Biography:...
  
  .

Controversy

"Ciao Maria", broadcast in January 1963, portrayed the lives of some selected Italian-Canadians. However, the portrayal of that community drew outrage from Toronto Italian community leaders such as broadcaster Johnny Lombardi

Johnny Lombardi

Johnny Barbalinardo Lombardi, CM, O.Ont was a pioneer of multicultural broadcasting in Canada. He has received many decorations and honours....

 and Toronto Roman Catholic priest Emmanuel Faraone. They complained that the documentary provided a distorted, low-brow view of Italians and failed to show the community's positive moral and cultural attributes.

After the end of this series, the CBC produced documentaries in anticipation of the 1967 Canadian Centennial under the Canada 98

Canada 98

Canada 98 is a Canadian centennial documentary television series presented by CBC Television. The series debuted on November 25, 1964 to showcase Canada's nature. the series was hosted by J. Frank Willis featuring nine episodes . Canada 98 was preceded by documentary film Camera Canada....

, Canada 99 and Canada 100 titles.