Donald Brittain was called a genius and one of Canada's national treasures.

Man of Film is the story of this prolific and audacious artist, a complex personality whose films remain as compelling today as the day they were made.

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As the decade of the 1970s rolled to its unsettling finish, Brittain was on his own extremely productive roll, matching the prolific record of his work of the 1960s. His next two films offered a strange mix: one reflected compassion, the other was an almost a vindictive ode. Seen together, the works reflect the range of the filmmaker’s passions.

The first film was about other French-speaking Canadians as famous as Trudeau and Lévesque—the Dionne quintuplets. The film was based on Pierre Berton’s bestseller, The Dionne Years. Interestingly, the completed work, The Dionne Quintuplets, was one of the few documentaries, which did not carry a Brittain credit as the writer. The CBC asked Brittain to direct and produce the documentary, but responsibility for the script would be Berton’s. This project also had enormous potential for conflict since both men were used to “calling all the shots.”

“We were not Gilbert and Sullivan,” Brittain sighed. “My greatest strength was writing, and this had been taken away from me.”

A Positively Final Appearance: 
A Journal 1996-98
by Alec Guinness

"A Positively Final Appearance offers a glimpse into the life of a beloved actor. These journal entries-written from the summer of 1996 through 1998-are filled with off-the-cuff observations and careful reflections. Sir Alec Guinness gives his view of Britain during the tumultuous times of Princess Diana's death and the election of Tony Blair, and comments on his quintessentially English country life with his wife. These are frank (and surprising) reflections on the effects of appearing in the Star Wars films, and both hilarious and poignant memories of such well-known performers as Humphrey Bogart and Noel Coward. This delightful, humorous journal is a worthy successor to My Name Escapes Me and a wonderful legacy from a master of the stage and screen."

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Castro's Daughter
by Alina Fernandez

"As a little girl in Cuba, Alina Fernandez found nothing strange about the many visits Fidel Castro made to her home. During these visits, Castro would pay special attention to Alina, many times even bringing her gifts. At age ten, Alina's mother finally divulged the reason for Castro's attention: Fidel Castro was her father. 

Through the years, however, Castro's influence as an authority figure in Alina's life never diminished. As she grew older, she recognized her position as one of Cuba's elite - but the political practices she witnessed under her father's regime and the neglect she experienced drove her to renounce that position and, ultimately, her relationship with her father as well."

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A Quiet American
by Andy Marino

"The history of Varian Fry is perhaps one of the least known yet most extraordinary sagas of World War II. In the summer of 1940, following the defeat of France by Hitler's armies, Fry, an idealistic American journalist and classical scholar, arrived in the port city of Marseilles armed with only three thousand dollars and a list of two hundred names. Sent by the newly formed American Emergency Rescue Committee, Fry was charged with the task of finding many of this century's most famous artists and intellectuals and helping them escape from Nazi-occupied France."

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