(RETURN OF) ROMANCE OF THE FAR FUR COUNTRY

This is a head’s up……………
In 1920, the Hudson Bay Company premiered a movie that had been three years in the making….Romance of the Far Fur Country. This movie featured life at the far flung trading posts that comprised the Company’s fur trade “kingdom”, it was made to celebrate the Company’s 250th anniversary. This movie documentary was actually released two years before Nanook of the North, a movie that is considered to be the harbinger of all great documentaries.

Romance of the Far Fur Country enjoyed modest and relatively brief popularity and then it languished for almost 80 years. The complete movie which ran for almost 2 hours had been “cut up” and made into a series of shorter movies, so in its complete state the movie had actually disappeared. This was until a Winnipeg-based company called Five Door Films came along, acquired access to all of the film footage and began the task of recreating the original film. They have almost finished this recreation. In the process, they have made another film called Return of the Far Fur Country, a film that documents the process of the recreation of the original movie. For more information about all of this go to www.returnfarfurcountry.ca

The International Congress of Arctic Social Sciences will be taking place at the University of Northern British Columbia in Prince George on May 22 - 26, 2014. As part of their program, they will be featuring the film Return of the Far Fur Country on Friday night, May 23rd at 7:30 p.m. at UNBC. This screening is open to the general public. I havn’t seen this particular film, I have only seen a collection of trailers of the original footage, but I can guarantee that if you are interested in sled dogs, in the north, in northern history, in the fur trade or in the Hudson Bay Company, this film is a must see so mark it on your calendar (or put it into your I phone)…..it’s going to be in Prince George and is open to everyone.

I'd just like to mention to any dog mushers that are thinking they might attend....UNBC is a nice place and there are probably going to be a lot of non dog mushers there...so wash up a bit before you leave home, maybe run a comb through your hair and don't wear the Carharts that you normally use when you feed the dogs....let's show everyone that we can clean up good!

http://www.returnfarfurcountry.ca/