Film advance

In most film cameras, a battery is not necessary to manual advance film using the lever. Your Canon AV-1 is no exception. I have owned two cameras from the same group, the AE-1 and the Canon A-1. Neither required a battery for manual film advance.

Make sure the ring around the shutter release button is set to "A", otherwise the shutter won't release and the film lever won't work correctly. If the ring shows an "L", the shutter release is locked.

Here's a graphic of the batteries that can be used in your AV-1: