Richard Nielsen

Life and Times was a series of biographical documentary films broadcast by CBC Television, CBC Country Canada and CBC Newsworld. It was hosted by Ann-Marie MacDonald and first appeared in 1996, ending in 2007. The show won many awards during its run, including Gemini Awards and Leo Awards.

During the summer of 1955, seventeen-year-old Eric Hansen embarks on a journey in his new town, a journey which will change his life forever.

Robert Ross (Brent Carver) lives a protected adolescence in a well-off Toronto suburb. Secretive and withdrawn, he shares his thoughts only with his sister Rowena (Anne-Marie MacDonald) who is mentally disabled. He feels compassion for his weak and conventional father. He avoids any confrontation with his mother (Martha Henry), a dominating woman whose despondency at having given birth to a handicapped child has turned to bitterness. Rowena occupies a central position in Robert's existence of daydreams and make-believe. When she dies, Robert clashes openly with his family, and decides to take himself in hand. It's 1914. He enrolls in the Canadian army, and, after training in Alberta and Montreal, he finds himself in England and France. The war becomes another way for him to resolve his conflicts, his dramas, his passions--his wars.

Jenny, a clever script assistant, lives with Geoff, recently returned to Toronto from Hollywood to direct a televised lottery show. Jenny comes up with a scheme for beating the lottery, which involves the seduction of Byron, an accountant who was hired to keep the lottery honest after the previous accountant dropped dead during the show. As the scheme proceeds, difficulties arise. A cleaning man, originally from India, is suspicious when he sees the lottery - supposedly live - being pre-taped; and the person chosen to buy the winning ticket is pursued by a loan shark. As the scheme unwinds, more and more people in Toronto - and India - learn the winning numbers of the upcoming draw. Meanwhile, Jenny and the accountant start falling in love. Her determined efforts ultimately turn an imminent disaster into a financial and romantic success.

A biographical drama that profiles the life of Hal C. Banks, a controversial American labour union leader, who came to Canada in 1949 to lead a violent fight against the rival communist shipping union. He once ruled the Canadian shipping industry, but his brutal tactics would bring his downfall.

Jeppe is a bedraggled day laborer whose great vice is brandy. And when he falls down drunk in the field, a passing baron is tempted to play a prank on Jeppe. The baron's lackeys carry the sleeping Jeppe up to the castle, dress him in the baron's finest bedclothes, and lay him in the baron's bed. When Jeppe wakes up, he thinks he is dead and has gone to heaven. But gradually, the baron's persistent lackeys manage to convince him that he is actually the baron himself. Jeppe soon takes advantage of this to take revenge on old enemies and indulge in old vices...

An extraordinary journey into the past to that fateful day, June 6, 1944. Relive the event of D-Day on the beaches of Normandy with Company Sergeant-Major Charlie Martin of the Queen's Own Rifles. Experience an emotional and intensely personal account of D-Day through a combination of interviews, archival film and Charlie Martin's diary excerpts.

This documentary explores and celebrates the all-too-short, heartbreaking but triumphant life and unworldly talent of Lenny Breau, considered by many to have been the greatest guitar player of all time. Long before the term "fusion" was coined, Lenny was melting musical boundaries to produce original pieces that borrowed from styles as diverse as jazz, classical and flamenco. Through a combination of never-before-seen archival footage and interviews with family and colleagues, viewers are offered a close-up look at a sensitive, selfless but flawed musical genius who redefined what the guitar could do. - Telefilm Canada