Lacrosse
1965 · 14m · Canada
Directed by Douglas Jackson
Genres: documentary, sports
Tones: contemplative
Lacrosse players take to the field while Mohawk craftsmen make sticks in Cornwall and the Canadian Lacrosse Association trains new teams, tracing a sport regaining popularity.
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A 1965 NFB doc about lacrosse sounds like the most aggressively earnest institutional propaganda possible—and yet Jackson refuses the expected triumphalism, letting Mohawk stick-makers and training grounds breathe with their own quiet authority; it's almost subversive in how little it tries to convince you.
Jackson positions lacrosse as a living lineage rather than a revived sport, weaving Mohawk craftsmanship with formal gameplay into a meditation on cultural transmission that respects both archive and present moment—this is the kind of structural intelligence that defines NFB documentary at its best.
The decision to hold on the hands of Mohawk craftsmen shaping lacrosse sticks—unglamorous, unhurried—becomes the film's entire thesis, a choice that reframes athletic spectacle as skilled labor and cultural continuity without ever stating it.