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Fur Trades (4)
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Voyageurs1978 1 minThis very short animation from the Canada Vignettes series illustrates the hardships of voyageurs' lives in the early Canadian fur trade. -
Mistress MadeleineAaron Kim Johnston 1986 57 minPart of the Daughters of the Country series, this film, set in the 1850s, unfolds against the backdrop of the Hudson's Bay Company's monopoly of the fur trade. In protest, some Métis engage in trade with the Americans. Madeleine, the Métis common-law wife of a Hudson's Bay Company clerk, is torn between loyalty to her husband and loyalty to her brother, a freetrader. Even more shattering, a change in company policy destroys Madeleine's happy and secure life, forcing her to re-evaluate her identity.
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Skin for SkinKevin D.A. Kurytnik & Carol Beecher 2017 15 minSkin for Skin is a dark allegory of greed and spiritual reckoning set during the early days of the fur trade.
In 1823, the Governor of the largest fur-trading company in the world travels across his Dominion, extracting ever-greater riches from the winter bounty of animal furs. In his brutal world of profit and loss, animals are slaughtered to the brink of extinction until the balance of power shifts, and the forces of nature exact their own terrible price.
With nods to Melville and Coleridge, directors Kevin D.A. Kurytnik & Carol Beecher have created a visually stunning contemporary myth about the cost of arrogance and greed. -
The Voyageurs1964 19 minThis short film tells the tale of the men who drove big freighter canoes into the wilderness in the days when the fur trade was Canada's biggest business. The film recreates scenes of the early 19th century with a soundtrack by an all-male chorus.
