Feature Interview: Silent film shot in Canadian Arctic resurfaces
In1920, 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.
