Film Record: Making of Canadian Homespun, The

Date produced: 1935

Filmmaker(s):

Duncan MacD. Little

Languages:

English

Length:

800 ft

Format:

16mm

Colour:

B&W

Sound Notes:

Silent

Awards/Recognition:

ACL Ten Best 1935, Honorable Mention
American Cinematographer Amateur Movie Makers Contest, 1935 - Honorable Mention
Sixth Annual Little Movie Party, 1935

Description:

"The Making of Canadian Homespun, by Duncan Mac D. Little, ACL, is a distinctly novel cinematographic achievement because it is an al fresco industrial film depicting a process of manufacture that normally is largely performed indoors. In addition, it is a uniquely valuable contribution to folk way records, listing, as it does, in a lovingly made film inventory, the steps involved in the production of homespun cloth by a geographically sequestered population which maintains one of the last stands of homely folk craft on the North American continent. Mr. Little's picture was made in summer in a region lacking facilities for indoor lighting. It compresses seasonal activities into the space of a few days, showing sheep shearing, preparation of the wool and its spinning and weaving. For this purpose, a spinning wheel and loom were set up in the open by the country people of the locality, who cooperated happily with Mr. Little. Not only is this ancient process preserved in an exceptional film record but, at the same time, there are offered many character studies of exceedingly individual French Canadians." Movie Makers, Dec. 1935, 551, 553.

Resources:

The film's French title is Etoffe du Pays Canadienne (American Cinematographer, March 1938, 131).

This film was either acquired or remade by Flory Films Inc., and distributed under the title Weaving Homespun (1948) with Duncan Little credited as director/photographer. Weaving Homespun appears in Catalog of Copyright Entries: Third Series (p. 106).

Locations:

• Trois Rivières, Quebec (Filming)

Subjects:

• Agriculture
• Artisans
• Ethnology
•      Manners and Customs
• North America
•      Canada

Genre:

• Industrial

Form:

• Short

Tags:

Screenings:

• Screened at the Sixth Annual Little Movie Party, April 1935: New York City, N.Y.
• Screened by Duncan Little in conjunction with the Third International Canoe Race in 1936: Trois Rivières, QC
• Screened by the Metropolitan Motion Picture Club in 1936 and 1940: New York City, N.Y.
• Screened by the Montreal Amateur Movie Club in 1936: Montreal, QC
• Screened at a meeting of the Handicrafts Association of Canada in 1937: Toronto, ON
• Screened by Duncan Little on an invite to La Societe le Flambeau in 1938: Trois Rivières, QC
• Little screened the film "throughout Quebec" (Boxoffice, July 1, 1939, 74): Quebec, Canada

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