Feature Interview: Silent film shot in Canadian Arctic resurfaces

Image courtesy of Hudson's Bay Company Archives// returnfarfurcountry.caIn1920, Canada’s iconic Hudson’s Bay Company celebrated its 250th anniversary.

To mark the occasion, it commissioned a film. In the spring of 1919, two film-makers set out on a six-month journey to document the Hudson’s Bay Company’s activities across Canada.

Their voyage took them from Montreal, up the coast of Labrador in the North Atlantic and into the Arctic. That film, titled The Romance of the Far Fur Country is considered one of the earliest examples of a documentary ever made.

When it was released, the film played to packed houses in London and Western Canada, before pretty much disappearing from view.

In this feature interview from Radio Canada  International’s show The Link, host Marc Montgomery speaks with Canadian historian Peter Geller of Alberta’s Grant MacEwan University, who tracked down the film’s original footage in London in the early 1990’s and was instrumental in having it returned to Canada just last year.

To listen, click here:  {play}/media/jukebox/FarFur.

For more information about  The Romance of Far Fur Country, click here.

For more stories from Radio Canada International’s The Link, click here.

Marc Montgomery, Radio Canada International

With a passion for anything antique with an engine, and for Canadian and world history, Marc comes with a wealth of media experience. After DJ work at private radio in southern Ontario, and with experience in Canadian Forces radio and tv in Europe, the state broadcaster in Austria (Radio 3), and the CBC in Ottawa and Montreal, he was the host of the immensely popular CBC and RCI show, "The Link". He is now part of the new RCI online team producing stories from and about Canada from coast to coast.

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