John N. Smith

Former Marine Louanne Johnson lands a gig teaching in a pilot program for bright but underachieving teens at a notorious inner-city high school. After having a terrible first day, she decides she must throw decorum to the wind. When Johnson returns to the classroom, she does so armed with a no-nonsense attitude informed by her military training and a fearless determination to better the lives of her students -- no matter what the cost.

In 1930s Saskatchewan Tommy Douglas, a small town pastor, sees the poverty and injustice around him which seem beyond his power to address from the pulpit. Douglas enters politics with the socialist Canadian Commonwealth Federation where his idealism runs into powerful opposition from the wealthy and the powerful. Despite the long odds, Douglas' new calling would soon make him a leader who transformed Canada.

Haunting Film recalls a tragic journey that culminates in one of the most brutal historical events in Canadian history - the Cypress Hills Massacre

Sam Giancana is a ruthless mob boss from Chicago. During a trip to Las Vegas, he sees a performance by the McGuire Sisters, a popular singing group with a pure image. Sam is attracted to Phyllis and begins aggressively courting her. The two enter into an epic romance, but it brings unwanted attention and tarnishes Phyllis's reputation. For Sam, however, the consequences are far more drastic, landing him in trouble with the law and his fellow mobsters.

A dramatization of the failed World War II raid which became the most serious defeat of Canadian forces in the war.

Russell, a single father, balances his work as a lawyer with the care of his five-year-old son after his wife abandoned them. When she reappears creating turmoil, he must deal with his new love interest and the job opportunity of a lifetime.

The true story of boys being sexually abused at their orphanage, run by a religious community in Newfoundland.

Fifteen years after the events of The Boys of St. Vincent took place, the various boys involved are brought in to testify against the brothers, now finally standing trial, who assaulted them when they were children.

In 1969, a visiting geologist from Newfoundland arouses scandal in a small Irish village when he romances a local girl who’s destined for the convent.

The title of this Canadian documentary may have some relation to Canadian Marshall McLuhan's theories. It combines interview with famous U.S. militants of the '60s, such as Jerry Rubin and Abbie Hoffman, with reenactments of their Chicago trials (i.e., the "Chicago Eight," etc.). Other figures of cultural interest from the time, including Alan Ginsberg and Buckminster Fuller, are interviewed or featured. The filmmaker indicates his belief that powerful forces in the U.S. government worked together to suppress American radicals. This view, widely disbelieved at the time, has since been confirmed.

This award winning miniseries traces the difficult passage of young Mary Keane (Aoife McMahon) from servitude in Ireland to the squalor of rough-and-tumble Newfoundland in the early 1800s. Escaping attempted rape and abuse, Mary moves on with her infant daughter to find shelter at a remote fishing station run by Thomas Hutchings (Colm Meaney). In a time and place where life and death are a hair's breadth apart, Mary joins the community's struggle for survival against sickness and starvation. All of the Cape's people are fugitives of one kind or another, but by pulling together through hardships and tragedies, they forge a new life of hope - and even love.

A busload of women become stranded in an isolated part of the Canadian countryside. As they await rescue, they reflect on their lives through a mostly ad-libbed script.

This short documentary tells the story of the first Jewish settlers to Winnipeg, people who fled European persecution at the turn of the century and founded a new community in a Canadian city.

At twenty-six, Noel Starblanket was one of the youngest Indigenous chiefs in North America--twice elected chief of the Starblanket Reserve, and also elected vice-president of all-Saskatchewan Indigenous organization. His great-grandfather's advice was to "learn the wit and cunning of the White man." That he did. Here he is seen in action, a chief with a briefcase, working with government officials for grants, running for public office, talking down his opposition, and solving the domestic problems of his reserve.

A grocery-store worker in a small Canadian town gets a chance to appear on a popular television game show.

Fabian Gibbs plays a black Montreal college student forced to leave school when his girlfriend Pat Dillon becomes pregnant. Gibbs resents this interruption in his plans, but he becomes a very good provider. The responsibilities of parenthood, alas, irreparably damage the boy-girl relationship.

Newfoundlanders share their food, culture, and homes with a group of Tamil refugees found off the coast.

Family Crisis Series short directed by John N. Smith

This feature-length drama explores the changing role of men in today's society by delving into the stories of 4 men and their relationships with women.

A historical drama depicting an Irish immigrant family’s first winter in Canada, where isolation, illness, and an unforgiving landscape test their will to survive.