a personal exploration into a family tradition
This newspaper clipping from The Vancouver Sun (1953) references a series that the NFB was working on including one episode called “Totem-Pole Carvers” I’m curious to know if this episode ever got made and broadcast. I can’t seem to find any reference to it on the NFB’s website. Nor can I find anything searching Google. Maybe the lazyweb can find something more about this?
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Maybe our friend at the NFB can pass this clipping around as well. Somebody must have a copy of it somewhere!
[...] http://www.neel.org/2008/04/25/nfb-on-cbc-totem-pole-carvers/ asks Hoosgot, [...]
It’s my understanding that this project was being undertaken by Robert Gardner, formerly from Seattle and Orbit Films but who ended up at Harvard University. He claimed they took no still photos except pictures of bushes and rocks, kept no field logs, and just decided not to do it for no special reason (I have a letter from him in my storage, I think, unless it is here with me). However, the filmmaker’s quick exit directly preceeded their trip to Africa to work with the then-newly discovered !Kung San, in the Kalahari Desert.
I have heard there was uncut film that may have included Dave Neel’s naming and a potlatch surrounding it (with other family members in attendance and dancing). I know everyone would be thrilled if there were as little as one still photo.
Oh, and the reason I think it was Gardner is that Theo used to mention “Orbit Films” and a “yacht” they sailed up to Fort Rupert(?) called the “Tanda.”
jack long made that series when he headed up the vancouver branch of the nfb.
his daughter may be able to unravel the mystery.