''High Grass Circus'' is a 1976

National Film Board of Canada The National Film Board of Canada (NFB; ) is a Canadian public film and digital media producer and distributor. An agency of the Government of Canada, the NFB produces and distributes documentary films, animation, web documentaries, and altern ...

documentary film A documentary film (often described simply as a documentary) is a nonfiction Film, motion picture intended to "document reality, primarily for instruction, education or maintaining a Recorded history, historical record". The American author and ...

co-directed by Tony Ianzelo and Torben Schioler, exploring life in the Royal Brothers'

traveling circus A circus is a company of performers who put on diverse entertainment shows that may include clowns, acrobatics, acrobats, trained animals, trapeze acts, musicians, dancers, hooping, hoopers, tightrope walkers, juggling, jugglers, magic (illusi ...

. It was shot in the spring and summer of 1975 and part of 1976, and had a budget of $62,008 (). It received the Golden Sheaf Award for Best Film of the Festival at the

Yorkton Film Festival Yorkton Film Festival (YFF) is an annual film festival held in late May in Yorkton, Saskatchewan, Canada. In 1947, the Yorkton Film Council (YFC) was founded and in 1950 the first international documentary film festival officially opened in we ...

, the Award of Excellence from the

Film Advisory Board The Film Advisory Board (FAB) is a member-supported organization founded in 1975 by Elayne Blythe (1919–2005). The FAB's "Award of Excellence" was developed to award quality family-oriented and children's entertainment in both print and elec ...

, and it was nominated as Best Documentary Feature at the 50th Academy Awards. Following its Oscar nomination, it was acquired by CBC-TV, which broadcast it on July 12, 1978. It was subsequently sold to television networks in New Zealand, the UK, South Africa and Yugoslavia. A nine-minute cut-down version of the film, entitled ''Little Big Top'', played in Canadian theatres in late 1977, including a 15-week run in Vancouver. In August 1980, PBS acquired the film along with seven other NFB documentaries and broadcast them on 11 of its stations.

References

Works cited

External links

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Watch ''High Grass Circus'' at NFB.ca
(requires

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) * 1976 films 1976 documentary films Canadian documentary films English-language Canadian films Documentary films about circus performers Films directed by Tony Ianzelo Films produced by Colin Low (filmmaker) National Film Board of Canada documentaries 1970s English-language films 1970s Canadian films English-language documentary films {{arts-documentary-film-stub