North of Superior

We sailed across lake Ontario from Youngstown, NY to spend weekends at Ontario Place in the early '70s. My father took me to this film. I was probably around 9 the first time. I went back on my own several times every summer to see it. I can't really find words to say how it moved me, even formed me in some way. While superficially gorgeous, it is deeply cultural and I will never forget it; it is forever rooted in my psyche.

Recently, Ontario Place Cinesphere celebrated it's 30th anniversary, I was priveleged to be working for IMAX at the time and to see the newly retouched transfer was just as stunning as 30 years ago. I still clearly remember my mother's gasp when the film opens to the fly-over of Lake Nipigon. Bill Houston also performed "Ojibway Country" live

This is a fantastic film. It starts off with a shot from a twin engined aircraft skimming across Lake Superior at high speed to the beat of a tom-tom. The effect on the huge Imax screen is exhilarating.The movie also has many other excellent aerial shots as well as ones taken on the ground. The overall impression is one of awe and beauty for the great northern landscapes shown in the film.

North of Superior is not just about scenery. There are scenes of a wedding, a tugboat breaking ice, an Indian reservation, a forest fire, tree planting, among others. However, the film can only give a very abbreviated snapshot of life in this part of northern Ontario as it is only 18 minutes long.

The unnarrated soundtrack features an original song most appropriate to the theme, "What kind of man would come to this country?/ What kind of country would take him away?" This song perhaps characterized the movie perfectly. It's a film about a ruggedly beautiful land with a unique charm that has attracted people from all over the world.

I first saw this the year it, and the first IMAX theatre, opened at Ontario Place in 1971. I must have seen it 50 times since as I worked there in subsequent summers and would sneak out from the employee lounge under the seating to watch the audience's reaction when the picture blows up from a small window to the full screen and they suddenly find themselves tearing along just above the waters of a northern lake.

I just noticed that it has been a regular feature at the Cinesphere this past summer and I'd go and see it again if I wasn't stuck in Vancouver. :-(

This is the first, and most widely seen, of the Canadian IMAX films - a true classic that showed at Ontario Place for years. I saw it there in 1983, and years later discovered that my new wife's Father appeared in the movie (he was the game warden who hangs off the helicopter to tag a moose swimming across a lake). He has a frame of the 70mm film as a memento, but I've never found a DVD or VHS release from IMAX, even though all their newer films are available for purchase. Perhaps they feel that this one is too dated, or not exciting enough, but for those who have seen it, no doubt it is one they remember well. Also, I understand that on the 30th Anniversary of the Ontario Place IMAX (in 2001) they had a re-touched print of the film showing, and I would have thought that that might have stirred interest in a home video release. If anyone has other information on this, please add a comment here.