You Laugh Like A Duck: Children Living in Manitoba and Nova Scotia

Released in 1980, You Laugh Like a Duck: Children Living in Manitoba and Nova Scotia is a co-production between the Winnipeg Film Group and the Atlantic Filmmakers Cooperative, both of which were founded six years earlier, in 1974. The film is a documentary that depicts the lives of various teenagers and children from different communities and backgrounds living in Manitoba and Nova Scotia. The narration from each interviewee is intercut with footage of the subject in their habitual environments, ranging from rural family homes surrounded by lakes and forests to bustling urban streets replete with pedestrians and commuters. Despite differences in geography, class, race, and gender, several recurrent themes emerge, including that of belonging, as well as one’s obligation to family, friends, and community.

The first half of the film takes place in Manitoba and is directed by Leon Johnson, while the second half takes place in Nova Scotia and is directed by Cordell Wynne. Johnson was one of the founding members of the Winnipeg Film Group, serving as the organization's first coordinator. His directorial career is largely confined to the 1970s and early 1980s, with his later career defined by his work as a sound recordist, editor, and mixer on numerous American and Canadian film and television productions. Wynne would go on to direct only one more film at AFCOOP, titled Rubber Madness, a five-minute short about tubing down the Gaspereau River. You Laugh Like a Duck remains to date the only co-production between the two organizations. In later years, WFG again collaborated with AFCOOP, serving as distributor for several films produced with AFCOOP’s support, including Aleatoria (2017) and Moon River (2021).

Jacob Szutka