Hello. In my new job, I've been putting together a list of old canoeing and wilderness films. I want to do free public canoeing movie nights of some of the classics at our office. Anyways, a few on the possible docket are Bill Mason's films, Wilderness Canoe Country (1949), Quetico (1958), Leave No Trace - A Wilderness Ethic (1992), Canoeing the Quetico and Superior National Forest (1935), Never Before, Never Again (1971), Wilderness Day (1954), and By Pack and Paddle (1981) among others. I'm doing my due diligence to get permission from the owners of said films and figuring out what public showing fees there are and the like. Two questions for the forum:

First, does anyone have a source for Quetico (1958) and Wilderness Day (1954)? There is a copy of Wilderness Day online though it's really low resolution and I haven't found anything about its current ownership. Is it public domain? For Quetico, I reached out to the Canadian Film Reference Library about it, but haven't heard back.

Secondly, did I miss any films? There were a couple I inquired about that were SUPER expensive for public showings so they aren't even on my list now, but if you have any favorites I haven't mentioned, let me know.

i don't know about any of those films, but i DO know i'd love to work where you work if you watch canoeing films all day. :)

While not exactly what you are asking for take a look at this old video.

1935 Quetico trip

Edit: Maybe that film is in your list, I see a 1935 in your initial post.

Alone in the Wilderness featuring Dick Proenneke is a classic.

PBS link

I think The Voyageurs (1964) would interest you. This is a 20 min film from the National Film Board of Canada depicting a crew of Voyageurs traveling in a reproduction canoe. The paddlers sing some traditional canoe songs. Of course, paddling, portageing, and cooking on the trail are also depicted. Bill Mason was a cameraman on the film. He's in the final scene which he writes about in one of his canoeing books. I watched it on Youtube.

Try this recent thread of mine. There may be on few on there as well...

Old Canoe and Wilderness Films

Nahanni
National film board of Canada.
Donald Wilder
1962

This may be the Quetico film you referenced:


Quetico 1958 Film with Bill Mason

I can't get the Nahanni film out of my head. There were points I just didn't understand. For instance, it took 7 weeks and many barrels of gas to get to the point where he turned around. Wouldn't it have been much more reasonable to fly in? Even if the plane couldn't land on the river at least they'd get close. And what was the prospector going to do if he found something? Would he be able to do any work before his winter weather window closed?

My feelings afterward was Nahanni was a neat and dramatic film, but totally scripted.

My dad and I began going to the BWCA in 1957, Brule Lake. Dad usually had his 8mm movie camera with him. I have reels of film shot during that era, before the built up roads were constructed. The fishing was great and the lakes were not highly populated, including shots of the Brule Island Camp. The Northshore and Grand Marais were a completely different world than today. We camped on Brule, in the early sixties, after the Lake was brought into the BWCA restrictions and saw one other person on the Lake, a commercial fisherman netting herring. He had some nice walleyes in his nets, which were released. We drank water directly from the Lake and beer from cone top cans. Check my message board threads, from the early years, under bruleman. I have many 35mm slides from over the years.

This is fantastic!

Thank you everyone. I had a good number of these on my list already, but it's good to hear other folks' ideas.

So far, I have copyright permissions to show Quetico 1958, Wilderness Canoe Country 1949, Canoeing the Quetico Superior 1935, Never Before, Never Again 1971, Leave No Trace, A Wilderness Ethic 1992, and a Wilderness Day 1955. Each will be shown with a collaborator to do a Q&A afterward. One film a month showing in Ely through the fall and winter. Thanks for the help!

Came in here to post about Bill Mason, but you're already on it! I've always wondered if the broken canoes in his fast water film were legit wrecks or sacrificed to the rapids by the film crew.

Its not a BWCA film, but I have been in love with this one since I saw it at a North House Folk School winter film festival a few years back:

https://www.nfb.ca/film/cree_hunters/

If you're looking for something that might get after what early settlers/trappers/loggers/traders might have gotten up to when building log homes this film from Finland is a great watch:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3J5wkJFJzE

Both of them are personal favorites.