TV/Multimedia

AVEL is the United Church of Canada's video and DVD lending library with regional outlets across the country. United Church constituents are automatically members of AVEL and can borrow resources without paying a membership fee. Click here for a directory and map of AVEL outlets across the country.

Copyright and Feature Films

The Canadian Copyright Act applies to any public use of a movie that is rented, purchased or borrowed.

Ideas for Using Videos and DVDs

Ideas on how groups and individuals are using AVEL resources.

Sample Study Guide

Seven tips for presenting and using videos effectively.

What's New

Niigaanibatowaad: FrontRunners

At a special ceremony at the opening of the 1989 Pan Am Games in Winnipeg, Manitoba, seven First Nations men in their fifties entered the stadium in war canoes. One of them held the Games torch. In 1967 when Winnipeg first hosted the Pan American Games, ten outstanding athletic teenage boys were chosen to run 800 kilometres over an ancient message route with the Games torch. When the runners arrived at the stadium, they were not allowed to enter with the torch. Instead, a non-Aboriginal runner was given the honour. Thirty-two years later, the province of Manitoba issued an official apology.

Nine of the ten men chosen for the 1967 Pan Am games torch run were from residential schools. Niigaanibatowaad is about the segregation of the Aboriginal athletes and the despair and abuse suffered in the school system. Niigaanibatowaad: Front Runners is a story of survival, hope, reconciliation and a dream for a new beginning that transcends hatred and racism. Running time 47:22 min. Study guide included with DVD.

For more information read the announcement.

The Box, the Book, and the Preacher: Beyond Survival Key Address by Mark MacDonald

Mark MacDonald, the first national Indigenous bishop for the Anglican Church of Canada, speaks from the viewpoint of his own experience of the mainstream church in Aboriginal communities. On this 37-minute DVD MacDonald offers an incisive analysis of the churches’ history with Aboriginal peoples in North America, describing the spirituality of the church as that of a box (building), a book (Bible), and a preacher. He offers stories, subtly powerful images, and new ways of looking at ancient scriptures as guides to help us all recover the power of the gospel for today and to find our way out of the box and into God’s mission in the world.

Contact your local AVEL outlet to borrow these and other titles.