Movies by Don Francks
Heavy Metal
The embodiment of ultimate evil, a glowing orb terrorizes a young girl with bizarre stories of dark fantasy, eroticism and horror.
Rock & Rule
A malevolent rock star kidnaps a female singer to force her to participate in the summoning of a demon and her band must help her stop him.
Captive Heart: The James Mink Story
James Mink is a black man in Canada who has built a very successful livery business, and enjoys a white wife and a beautiful daughter, Mary. An excellent match is arranged with an American businessman, but when he takes his new wife Mary across the border his true character emerges - he sells her into slavery. James and Elizabeth must go to Virginia to rescue their daughter.
Toronto Jazz
Toronto is regarded as the third largest jazz centre in North America. This film features a cross-section of jazz bands of that city: the Lenny Breau Trio, the Don Thompson Quintet and the Alf Jones Quartet. Their styles show creative self-expression, hard work, and improvisation.
The Circle
Produced in 1967, this black and white film is an inmate's view of Daytop, a drug treatment centre on Staten Island, New York, where addicts learn to get along without drugs. Uncompromising, often brutal group therapy sessions are designed to shake loose the excuses a victim makes for himself. The people and situations shown are authentic; only one actor was employed. The results obtained at Daytop are regarded by some psychiatrists as a breakthrough.
Madballs: Escape from Orb!
The Madballs are a zany animated rock band who rock and roll their way across the galaxy. Music is illegal on their home planet so they make a break for it on Earth.
High Steel
A dizzying view of Manhattan in the 1960s, the tallest town in the world, and the men who work cloud-high to keep it growing. They are the Mohawk Indians from Kahnawake, near Montréal, famed for their skill in erecting the steel frames of skyscrapers. The film shows their nimble work, high above the pavement, but there are also glimpses of the quieter community life of the old Kahnawake Reserve.
Drying Up the Streets
An ex-junkie takes on seedy urban culture to try and locate his daughter.
He Never Died
Jack is a solitary man with a mysterious past. His strange habits will soon become stranger when his past catches up with him.
Drylanders
The epic story of the opening of the Canadian West and the drought that brought the Depression in the thirties. This is the saga of a family who left eastern Canada to stake their future in the Prairies.
Fish Hawk
A hardened and embittered man turns his life around with the help of a farm boy in this uplifting family tale. Down on his luck and dependent on booze, Native American Fish Hawk (Will Sampson) changes his fate when he accepts a job hunting down a bear that's been killing local livestock. His temporary residence with the Boggs family brings young Corby (Charles Fields) into his life, and the boy's friendship gives Fish Hawk a new reason to live.
Hostile Advances: The Kerry Ellison Story
Kerry Ellison is sexually harassed at work. No matter how much she complains, the problem, Jack Gilcrest, is unstoppable. Kerry's only left option is court. Will she win?
The Overlanders
The year is 1862. The settings. The Canadian northwest. The lure is gold. Nine men, two women (one of them pregnant), and a young boy begin the odyssey which is to change all their lives. Through jungle-like forests, they look for a trail abandoned 10 years before by explorers and fur-traders. It runs out in a beautiful mountain trap, a box canyon with a waterfall. Left leaderless when death strikes, the vulnerable band must find another route. They decide to descend the mighty Fraser river by raft. Those who survive the great Grand Canyon r...