VIDEOS IN REFERENCE TO DOUKHOBORS
THIS CHAPTER FEATURES FILMS/VIDEOS WHICH I HAVE WORKED ON OR COLLECTED.
HERITAGE TOUR 2015
TEXT NARRATIVE: www.larrysdesk.com/heritage-tour-2015.html
VIDEO TOUR: https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=yuA6ug8jN_g
ht//
SPIRIT WRESTLERS DOUKHOBORS
Vedat Akcayoz - filmarka 2014
THE TROUBLE WITH TOLSTOY
Biography Documentary hosted by Alan Yentob, BBC - English narration
Alan Yentob takes an epic train ride through Tolstoy’s Russia
2 hours
THE LOST LAND
This video was made in Russia in 2003, and aside from introduction and closing credits, is in Russian. However, there is a wealth of interest in watching it even if you don't know Russian. There is singing, prayer recital, different work tasks and hobbies, plus the wonderful locations.
THE SPIRIT WRESTLERS
Director Jim Hamm discovers extraordinary archival records, film and photographic material. He interviews Orthodox Doukhobors, former Freedomites, retired RCMP officers and historians. The result is a remarkable film which makes an important contribution to Canada’s social history.
94 m. c. 2002
94 m. c. 2002
MY DOUKHOBOR COUSINS
When the National Film Board came to BC, producing this well researched film, I had the good fortune of assisting the production as Consultant with old colleague Ole Gjerstad. The premiere was held over two capacity crowd nights at the Doukhobor Discovery Centre, 2002.
CBC NEW DENVER DOCUMENTARY
HARVEST OF AGE
Shortly after IN SEARCH OF UTOPIA was shown on The Knowledge Network, CBC Vancouver commissioned
George Woodcock to produce two segments on the Doukhobors.
IN SEARCH OF UTOPIA ~
The Doukhobors
Completed in 1978, after five years of 'off and on' writing and research, before actual filming and production took place, this was my first major foray into the world of the Doukhobors. Mother was a devout Verigin, Dad was an Independent. This stimulated my search into my own background. When Roman Kroiter, of the National Film Board, [who invented IMAX], saw this film, he said it was 'almost brilliant!' High praise from a man who undoubtedly was. This film is now in our National Archives.
TRADITIONAL DOUKHOBOR
SPOON AND LADLE CARVING
Pete Oglow, [1913-2004], was a community and peace activist, builder and traditional Doukhobor craftsman. I was employed at the National Doukhobor Heritage Village in Saskatchewan in 1993, when we came into close working contact planning the 100th anniversary of the Arms Burning of 1895. [This was the birth of the Council of Doukhobors in Canada.] At that time, Pete invited me to come and work with him at the Castlegar [then] Doukhobor Historical Village, which needed professional guidance. I did, and remained until 2010, adding to his accomplishments throughout.
In this video we see Pete at his craft height, demonstrating the art of traditional heritage spoon carving.
Pete's spoons and ladles were gifted to world wide figures, including the Pope, Mother Teresa, the British royal family, Prime Ministers, Premiers and Governors General and Lieutenant Governors.
In this video we see Pete at his craft height, demonstrating the art of traditional heritage spoon carving.
Pete's spoons and ladles were gifted to world wide figures, including the Pope, Mother Teresa, the British royal family, Prime Ministers, Premiers and Governors General and Lieutenant Governors.
The Doukhobors: "Spirit Wrestlers"
At the Canadian Museum of Civilization from
January 18, 1996 to September 7, 1998.
In preparation for this exhibit, I did various contract jobs such as evaluating Doukhobor artifacts, collecting Doukhobor music from 1948 on, and overseeing the construction of a model of a Doukhobor village for the major exhibit.
When the C M C film crew came to Castlegar, I was invited to be the Location Manager, and to help arrange for suitable selections for the film back ground which would play throughout the exhibit.
The following video was the result: [Unfortunately there are two five second sound lapses which occurred during the transfer.]
The following links provide more information about the exhibit:
www.historymuseum.ca/cmc/exhibitions/cultur/doukhobors/dou01eng.shtml#menu
www.historymuseum.ca/learn/research/resources-for-scholars/bibliographies/a-guide-to-the-doukhobor-archives/
www.historymuseum.ca/cmc/exhibitions/cultur/doukhobors/dou06eng.shtml
THE DOUKHOBOR HERITAGE
INTERPRETATION RUG DISPLAY
THIS WAS THE FIRST MAJOR EXHIBIT I PRESENTED AT THE KDHS
CBC OMBUDSMAN ON THE DEATH OF PETER VERIGIN
In 1977, I was making my film, In Search of Utopia, The Doukhobors. Frustrated by the government secrecy regarding the death of Peter Verigin and the lack of disclosure regarding the investigation, I approached Robert Cooper who was planning a segment on Freedom of Information for CBC's Ombudsman. The following program was the result:
THE LAST HURRAH - A MAN AND HIS MUSIC:
[28 m. colour]
Nick Kalmakoff was eighteen years old in 1927 living on a farm near Canora, Saskatchewan, when he showed up at the local sobranie [meeting] with an old school scribbler, intent on beginning his own song collection.
The songs were Doukhobor and in 1927 at least half or more of the people in the windswept snow enshrouded wooden meeting house had arrived from Russia as religious refugees in 1899, refugees with a rich oral culture. Because few of these immigrants spoke English and because Nick knew Russian well before he knew English what he recorded from 1927 onward was an authentic verbatim rendition of songs and hymns which had been passed down for generations by Russian Doukhobors before they came to Canada.
This film is a salute to a Canadian pioneer, a genuinely interested craftsman who pursued his `hobby' for over sixty years not realizing that he was forming a valuable ethno-musicological statement, a unique collection capturing and preserving the Doukhobor music in its purist form. Through this work Nick made a valuable and unusual contribution to the Canadian multi-cultural mosaic. As he says: `1 don't have many competitors in this field.'
This film shows him putting his last edition together, including the binding of his own books. Nick talks about his early interests and influences and the path that compelled him in this rare pursuit. Soon after he presented his first collection he discovered a demand for the material, and soon his song books were cheering many a cold, quiet winter evening on the Canadian prairies as the immigrants gathered and sang old songs and learned new ones gleaned from his collection as well as their own memories.
Drawing on sources from across the Saskatchewan prairies where at one time 90 Doukhobor villages had flourished, Nick soon had a substantial body of work in his collection. Some were edited out, others were added, usually brought from Russia, from Alberta or B. C. or written by one of several talented Doukhobor poets of the time.
Nick retired in 1990 after sixty years of this activity and THE LAST HURRAH captures his interest, his dedication and his creativity, as well as including examples of this haunting a Capella music.
As is the film, Nick's work is a valuable record of an age gone by.