''Whistling Smith'' is a 1975 short

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 ...

directed by Marrin Canell and Michael J. F. Scott for the

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 ...

. It was produced for the NFB's '' Pacificanada'' series, which aired on

CBC-TV CBC Television (also known as CBC TV, or simply CBC) is a Canadian English-language broadcast television network owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the national public broadcaster. The network began operations on September 6, 195 ...

in early 1975. The film is a revealing portrait of a tough cop with a big heart.

Vancouver Police Department The Vancouver Police Department (VPD) () is the police force in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. It is one of several police departments within the Greater Vancouver, Metro Vancouver Area and is the second largest police force in the provinc ...

Sergeant Bernie "Whistling" Smith walks the beat on the city's

Downtown Eastside The Downtown Eastside (DTES) is a list of neighbourhoods in Vancouver, neighbourhood in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. One of the city's oldest neighbourhoods, the DTES is the site of a complex set of social issues, including disproportio ...

, the hang-out of petty criminals and down-and-outers. His policing style is unorthodox; to many drug users and prostitutes, he's more than a cop—he's a counsellor and a friend. In the year that he's been in charge of this beat, crime has dropped by over forty per cent.

Accolades

''Whistling Smith'' was nominated for an

Academy Award The Academy Awards, commonly known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit in film. They are presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) in the United States in recognition of excellence ...

for Best Documentary Short at the

48th Academy Awards The 48th Academy Awards were presented Monday, March 29, 1976, at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion in Los Angeles, California. The ceremonies were presided over by Walter Matthau, Robert Shaw (actor), Robert Shaw, George Segal, Goldie Hawn, and Ge ...

.The End of the Game Wins Documentary Short: 1976 Oscars
/ref> It also won the

Canadian Film Award The Canadian Film Awards were the leading Canadian cinema awards from 1949 until 1978. These honours were conducted annually, except in 1974 when a number of Quebec directors withdrew their participation and prompted a cancellation. In the 1970s ...

for Sound Re-Recording.

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Whistling Smith 1975 films 1975 short documentary films Canadian short documentary films Documentary films about law enforcement in Canada English-language Canadian films Documentary films about Vancouver National Film Board of Canada documentaries National Film Board of Canada short films 1970s English-language films 1970s Canadian films English-language short documentary films