Arctic Canada caught on 1919 silent film (w/video)

BBC ^ | January 20, 2012 | Chris Nikkel

[decimon]

One of the world's early documentaries featured unique footage of the lives of Arctic fur trappers in 1919. After long being forgotten, it's now been restored for modern audiences in Canada, including communities descended from those featured in the silent film.

In July 1919, the RMS Nascopie departed Montreal. It carried supplies bound for Arctic fur trade posts.

But the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) ice-breaker had extra cargo on its annual trip. A film crew is on board.

The ship headed north. As they travelled, a cameraman filmed the Nascopie crashing through ice floes.

When the ship anchored, he went overboard, trudging across the ice with a tripod cradled in his arms. A second camera rolled from the deck, recording it all.

The film crew had orders from the HBC headquarters in London. They were to make a film capturing the company's workings and commercial land holdings, holdings that once covered one twelfth of the earth's surface.

But the HBC wanted rid of the land, and were looking for people to settle on it.

[decimon]

Cold storage ping.

[Paladin2]

Seems like they had some good lookin’, happy dogs.

[decimon]

Seems like they had some good lookin’, happy dogs.

Happy they weren't eaten like Amundsen's dogs. Or maybe they were.

[Oatka]

A Canadian friend once told me about a Newbie who asked what “HBC” stood for, as he had seen it almost everywhere he went. The laconic answer was “Here Before Christ”.

[decimon]

A Canadian friend once told me about a Newbie who asked what “HBC” stood for, as he had seen it almost everywhere he went. The laconic answer was “Here Before Christ”.

I don't think I'd guess Hudson Bay Company. That's kinda long ago.

[SunkenCiv]

GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother & Ernest_at_the_Beach	join list or digest view topics view or post blog bookmark post a topic subscribe
Thanks decimon! Just adding to the catalog, not sending a general distribution. To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list.

[eyedigress]

Bump!

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

Always makes me chuckle when people talk about "big business" as if it was something new. Hudson Bay Company and Dutch East India Company along with other were really Big Business.

[steelyourfaith]

Thanx for the ping SunkenCiv !

 

Beam me to Planet Gore !

[decimon]

Always makes me chuckle when people talk about "big business" as if it was something new. Hudson Bay Company and Dutch East India Company along with other were really Big Business.

That gets into what corporations are supposed to be about. And that's a discussion we in the US should probably engage.

[Harmless Teddy Bear]

That gets into what corporations are supposed to be about.

18% annual dividends?

[Oatka]

I don't think I'd guess Hudson Bay Company. That's kinda long ago.

The feeling up there was that HBC WAS HBC. :-)

[MinuteGal]

This film will give PETA viewers real heartburn.....all those stacks and stacks of fur pelts ready for shipping.

Those aborigine Eskimos were greedy, profit-seekers, the evil one-percenters of their day, their tribe and their habitat, weren't they!

Leni

[Daffynition]

>>When the completed film premiered across Western Canada and in London, it was accompanied by a live orchestra.<<

If you ever have the opportunity to see a silent film accompanied by a live orchestra.... take advantage of the extraordinary experience.

[Daffynition]

Are you saying, eating sled dogs under these circumstances, makes these men, somehow evil or inhuman?

[SunkenCiv]

Just an update, thanks again decimon, wow, 11 years.