You are here

But What Are We Doing?

Accession number: 
1980.0078

Sponsors:

Producers:

Production Years: 
1960 to 1980

Languages:

Film Properties: 
Length (minutes): 
12
Holding Institutions: 

University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario: 16mm.
"The narrator starts the film by talking of human history and the beginning of sedentary life in human establishments. Today, these establishments are menaced. By the year 2000, the world's population will have doubled, and most people will be living in large cities, creating a dangerous threat to the environment. An animated monster, composed of a collage of city buildings, appears on the screen as the narrator states that some critics regard urbanization as a monster. We are shown the problems of industrialization, pollution, and automobiles. Here in Canada, we have a great impact on the environment, despite our small population. We are shown Canada's north, and the narrator says that we must develop it with care. More and more, Canadians are saying that it is time to slow industrial growth, to think and create a new lifestyle in which we don't always want more, but better. What we need now is the will to make these changes, to find the equilibrium between the advance of technology and the preservation of the environment. In Canada, the problems of living space are serious, but can be solved. The film finishes with the words, 'But what are we doing?'"