Helicopter Canada (1966)

This film does pretty much what it says on the can, but it’s Stanley Jackson’s informatively light-hearted commentary that gives this a bit of an edge as we take an aerial travelogue across some of Canada’s almost 10 millions of square kilometres. It shows off the grandeur of a nation so vast it has just about every form of terrain save for jungle, and an huge variety of wildlife strewn across the place. It’s folks have a quirkiness to them, too, and the understated humour from the commentary reminds us of the country’s ability to self-deprecate even when celebrating it’s more significant industrial, farming and even aeronautical achievements. It’s the very contrast between the industrial, the rural, the developed and the pristine that showcases well the diversity across this huge expanse. Although it probably didn’t mean to, it also illustrates just how cavalier mankind was in the 1960s with the environment: building cars and roads, mining for coal, drilling for oil, harvesting the forests - all with little regard for the consequences, and it’s well worth an hour to celebrate Canada’s centennial.