Saskatoon: Land and Growth Control
1974 · 56m · Canada
Directed by Michel Régnier
Genres: documentary, essay film
Tones: contemplative
Saskatoon uses public control over land investment to curb speculation and keep prices manageable. The policy is credited with maintaining balance among commercial, residential, and public uses.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
A 1974 NFB doc about municipal land policy sounds like the opposite of subversive until you realize it's basically propaganda for a radical idea—public ownership as a form of resistance—wrapped in the driest possible package, which is kind of hilarious.
Régnier's essay operates within the long tradition of the NFB's didactic documentaries, but what distinguishes this is its formal restraint: the argument unfolds through measured observation and administrative detail, trusting the policy itself to carry the intellectual weight without rhetorical flourish.
The choice to let Saskatoon's actual urban planning documents and municipal meetings be the primary visual argument—rather than cut to charismatic talking heads or dramatic aerial shots—grounds the entire film in bureaucratic reality, and that commitment to specificity over spectacle is what makes it work.