Beaulieu (2005) From Pharaohs to Pulp Mills: The Ontario Government Motion Picture Bureau, the Lakehead, and the envisioning of a Provincial North

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From Pharaohs to Pulp Mills: The Ontario Government Motion Picture Bureau, the Lakehead, and the envisioning of a Provincial North

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CONTRIBUTORS:

Author:

Beaulieu, Michel S. (Lakehead University)

CONFERENCE TITLE:

Annual Meeting of the Film Studies Association of Canada, Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences

CONF. LOCATION:

None

YEAR:

2005

PUB TYPE:

Conference Paper

SUBJECT(S):

None

DISCIPLINE:

History

HTTP:

LANGUAGE:

English

PUB ID:

103-415-258 (Last edited on 2005/04/30 09:45:05 GMT-6)

SPONSOR(S):

ABSTRACT:
In 1924, filmmakers working for the Ontario Motion Picture Bureau stumbled upon a wholly unique idea. They combined the energy, interest, and euphoria surrounding the discovery of Tutankhamen with an overly optimistic belief in the potential of Northern Ontario. The plot was simple and, to residents of communities such as Port Arthur and Fort William, Ontario (today Thunder Bay and collectively the Lakehead) merely matter of fact: the spirit of a pharaoh is awakened from a millennia of slumber by archaeologists only to see Egypt as a pale shadow if its former glory. He leaves on a quest to seek the cradle of civilization in the twentieth century and, quite naturally from the viewpoint of the residents of the twin cities, discovers it in Port Arthur and Fort William. This paper seeks to demonstrate that many films made by the Ontario Motion Picture Bureau between 1918 and 1926, such as “A Visit from Pharaoh” described above, are consistent with the "booster" spirit of promotion that was a hallmark of how communities in Northern Ontario and Western Canada viewed their place within Canada. While designed to stem the tide of American images and ideals, the films and their surrounding documentation reveal that their designs and ambitions were formed and reformed by a desire to replicate, or at the very least emulate, Chicago and other American urban centres in the hope of becoming one of the centres of the next “great civilization.

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