The Best Damn Fiddler from Calabogie to Kaladar

The Best Damn Fiddler from Calabogie to Kaladar is a realistic account of itinerant bush worker Emery Prometer (Chris Wiggins). Emery lives in the rural area of the Ottawa Valley and can't make enough money to feed his large family, but nevertheless rejects government handouts. His tough self-reliance and hard-drinking lifestyle are viewed with compassion as his family ekes out an existence in a life of isolation and deprivation. His oldest daughter Rosie (Kidder) decides she must break the cycle of poverty by leaving home and getting an education and a job.

One of the best NFB films of the sixties, this sensitive docudrama uses professional actors and a dramatic script, yet captures astonishingly well the atmosphere of the Ottawa Valley and the dignity of one man and his family in the face of economic deprivation.

The film, which marked Kidder's first screen appearance, was produced for CBC-TV as a pilot project in the (then-unnamed) Challenge for Change program. As Gerald Pratley has stated in A Century of Canadian Cinema, the film "is infused with a love of life, of children and of freedom within society, no matter how unfavorable the socio-economic terms.... A brilliant example of what our filmmakers could do if they had the opportunities and the material to replace the run-of-the-mill American films that dominate our theaters and television – the kind of inexpensive creativity private broadcasters continue to say they cannot afford." The Best Damn Fiddler from Calabogie to Kaladar won eight Canadian Film Awards, including Best Picture (John Kemeny, Barrie Howells), Director (Peter Pearson), Cinematography (Tony Ianzelo), Screenplay (Joan Finnegan) and Lead Actor (Chris Wiggins).

From www.filmreferencelibrary.ca (Much better description of what this film is about. I still can not believe how they take a daughter to save the family from poverty. In American Cinema in 1968 they would have used a son.)

Just awful, despite its adequate production. a celebration of failure, misplaced and unwarranted pride, and exists solely to promulgate a leftist agenda.

An excellent movie to watch if you have ever been to the Ottawa Valley. The part with the daughter going to work for Bell was really good because women actually do that there. Very pragmatic. I loved the scene with all of the kids going into the back of the truck, it may seem like a bit much, but some people like to have a tonne of children, but the daughter was right, no point havin' kids when you could be in Ottawa working for Bell. 160 Elgin Street, it's ok.

This was Margot Kidder's first film, and though I saw over 30 years ago I still remember it quite well for the fine performances, solid directing, and the compelling story of poverty and coming of age in rural Ontario in the 60s. Worth watching if you, by some miracle, ever run across a copy of it. Also look for Kate Reid and Chris Wiggins in career-shaping roles. Won a GENIE (Canadian Oscar) for Best Film in 1969.

This is one of the great under-rated films in Canadian Cinema history, its also just an under-rated under appreciated film period.

If memory serves, the switchboard operator played by a very young, if stunning - in a very simple way- Margot Kidder, was her first time cast in a movie.

For those into film history and those Canadian films that could be considered remarkable, it is in my view the English Canadian counter-point to the highly recognized (validly) Quebequois film "Mon Oncle Antionne" by the late, if awesome Claude Jutra. There was an unfairness that while "Mon Oncle Antoinne" deservingly in my view, was always in the "top Ten French Language Canadian Films", "Best Damn Fiddler" was never thought of for inclusion in the Top Ten English language counterpart lists. That's just wrong.