An Eye on Nova Scotia Film Production
The film industry is growing in Nova Scotia, and with the help of a new book, movie- and history-buffs alike can discover how far it has come.
The book, called Eastern Eye: A Nova Scotia Filmography, 1899- 1973, captures the history of film production in Nova Scotia.
From the 1913 film Evangeline to Don Shebib's Goin' Down the Road, readers will find information on these film titles and thousands more.
Produced by the Nova Scotia Archives and Records Management in Halifax, it features film, video and selected television productions created by, for or about Nova Scotians between 1899 and 1973. Along with the province's film history, the 470-page book contains a database of over 2,500 film descriptions.
"This is a new research and reference tool for cultural historians, film researchers, and anyone interested in the movies," said provincial archivist Brian Speirs. "The bibliography will encourage further exploration of the province's film history and repatriation of our archival film heritage."
Mr. Speirs says they chose 1973 as the cut-off date because that is the year the National Film Board opened its Halifax office, a watershed in the provincial film industry.
Researchers will be especially interested in the cultural diversity captured in Eastern Eye. Film-makers in Nova Scotia have taken on a full range of subjects over the years, from early travelogues and news coverage, to the first serious profiles of racial and ethnic minority groups.
"As well, the number of production companies included in Eastern Eye reminds us that Nova Scotia has a long history as a player in the film industry," said Mr. Speirs.
Not every item listed in Eastern Eye has survived the test of time. According to the authors, Evangeline, the first commercially-produced, full-length motion picture in Canada, "was last seen leaving Halifax with some of the Canadian Bioscope's American production crew" during World War I.
Not every item can be viewed locally, either. For the one-minute news clip of British aviator Beryl Markham's plane, ditched "in a field on Cape Breton Island," you'll have to contact British Movietonews in England.
A tremendous volume of footage has survived, however, and much of it is available for viewing at the archives in Halifax.
Eastern Eye is the brain-child of the late Gordon Parsons, widely remembered as a film aficionado and founder of Halifax's now defunct alternate movie-house, Wormwood's Dog and Monkey Cinema. In 1984, under the umbrella of the Motion Picture Heritage Fund of Nova Scotia, Mr. Parsons began to collect information about the province's film heritage and to assemble a database of his findings.
After his death in 1993, the project was taken over by a Filmography Committee based at the archives. Over the years, the project was funded by the Province of Nova Scotia, the Motion Picture Heritage Fund, and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
"Eastern Eye is a fitting tribute to the pioneering efforts of Gordon Parsons to create a permanent record of film-making in Nova Scotia," said Mr. Speirs. "The archives is extremely pleased to have worked on the final publication of this bibliography, which will be an enduring testimonial to Parsons' determination and vision."
Copies of Eastern Eye are available for purchase by writing to Nova Scotia Archives and Records Management, 6016 University Ave., Halifax, Nova Scotia, B3H 1W4. An electronic version of the publication is also available on the website at www.nsarm.ednet.ns.ca .