Weekend film series explores HBC's impact on North

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Landmark documentary Nanook of the North is featured in weekend festival.

IN Winnipeg, conjoining the Hudson's Bay Company with history will tend to conjure a vision of that lovely, decaying old department store on the corner of Portage and Memorial.

Kevin Nikkel knows different. In conjunction with the re-named magazine Canada's History (formerly The Beaver), the Winnipeg filmmaker explores the deeper roots of the company's impact on the North, and on Manitoba over its three-century-plus history over a weekend-long series of films and a workshop.

Nikkel may be best known as a filmmaker (Dial M for Monster), but he majored in history at the University of Manitoba, and that fascination is evidently still in force. In fact, he was inspired to curate this weekend's program when he was searching for footage for a documentary project.

"I was doing searches in old archives when I stumbled upon some of the photos and film footage and that sparked the idea of this weekend, using the Hudson's Bay Company as the focus."

Fortunately for Nikkel, the history of the North was committed to film early in the 20th century, thanks in part to pioneering work by prospector-turned-filmmaker Robert Flaherty, who effectively introduced the Inuit people to the world via his popular landmark documentary Nanook of the North (1922).

Nikkel will screen more obscure footage -- a compilation of 16 minutes of archival film titled Adventures on the Bay in a Saturday afternoon program and panel discussion "to discuss the state of the archives and explore what we as filmmakers can do to bring that to new audiences."

The program includes:

The Bishop Who Ate His Boots, Friday at 7 p.m.

The late Richard Stringer's doc about his Arctic missionary grandfather, Bishop Isaac Stringer. As legend has it, the bishop was so starved during a northern canoe trip, he ate his own moccasins. That was supposedly the inspiration for the classic Charlie Chaplin scene in The Gold Rush in which the starved Chaplin eats his own boiled boots as though they were a delectable gourmet meal. The film will be introduced by Stringer's collaborator and editor Bob Lower.

Nanook of the North, Friday at 8:30 p.m.

Flaherty's silent doc about the oft harsh living conditions of the Inuit. It will be screened with live musical accompaniment by Nathan Reimer including a performance by Inuit throat singer Nikki Komaksiutiksak.

Panel Discussion: Bringing Archives to New Audiences, Saturday at 3:30 p.m.

Kevin Nikkel hosts a panel discussion on responsibly mining the riches of film and photo archives. Including 16 minutes of archival film titled Adventures on the Bay, again accompanied by a live musical performance by Nathan Reimer.

Passage, Saturday at 7 p.m.

Documentarian John Walker introduces his film about the ill-fated Franklin expedition, in which Franklin and his 128-man crew perished on the ice searching for the Northwest Passage. In defence of the dead, influential Englishmen (including Charles Dickens, of all people) attributed the cannibalism that ensued to the Inuit. Walker shows that debate rages even today. Walker will lead a documentary master class Saturday from noon to 3 p.m.

Shorts from the North, Sunday, 7 p.m.

This series of short films includes Winnipeg filmmaker Matt Holm's mountie burlesque Man of the Northwest and the more serious doc The Other Side of the Ledger: An Indian View of the Hudson's Bay Company, a 1972 film that provided a sobering aboriginal perspective to the celebration of the company's 300-year history.

randall.king@freepress.mb.ca

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition February 5, 2010 D7