Director: Colin Low
National Film Board of Canada. 2000. $39.95
Length: 47 minutes
Audience: High School, Post-Secondary
Topics: film techniques, propaganda

NFB film description:

The horrors of war, the art of producing pictures, the autobiography of a master filmmaker, and the parallels between the mass production of weapons and violent media images - all come together in Moving Pictures, a rich and multi-layered documentary.

Over the course of a 50-year career, Colin Low has directed or produced 200 films, and has garnered a remarkable nine Oscar nominations. During the same period, he has collected images of war - etchings and woodcuts, including extremely detailed miniatures.

But the images that fascinated and haunted Low are nearly impossible to capture on film. So he shot Moving Pictures in 35 mm format, and developed techniques - used here for the first time - to show with startling clarity the fine lines of stamps and the microscopic details of tiny copperplate etchings.

In this film, Low traces his growing awareness of war, the perversion of art into propaganda, and the technological advances that have led to more efficient creation and dissemination of images - as well as more effective weapons of mass destruction.

Moving Pictures can be ordered online from the National Film Board.