The Okanagan Valley: British Columbia’s Orchard Playground (1943-47) is one of several BC government travelogues shot in the 1940s. The edited excerpts featured in this clip include scenes from Vernon, Kalamalka Lake, Kelowna, and Summerland, with glimpses of Peachland and Naramata. They show Kelowna Regatta events, orchard scenes, and the packing of apples by skilled female packing house workers (probably in Summerland). For a description of the complete film, see this database entry.
During the Second World War, the BC Government Travel Bureau (BCGTB) launched an ambitious program of in-house film production. The Bureau’s Photographic Branch shot 16-millimetre colour footage on Vancouver Island and throughout the Southern Interior. This material would be fashioned into several colour-and-sound travelogues, highlighting the province’s major regions and local attractions.
Most of these films were finished and released in the early postwar years, when the filming program was also extended to northern and central BC, the Hope-Princeton Highway, the Alaska Highway, and the route of the Pacific Great Eastern Railway.
If you want to continue your Okanagan journey southwards, check out Penticton Peach Festival (ca. 1950), which also features the BCGTB’s vibrant colour footage.
The RBCM’s 2008 DVD release, Evergreen Playland: A Road Trip through British Columbia, comprises excerpts from BC government travelogues of the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s. The DVD is also included in the book Free Spirit: Stories of You, Me and BC, which accompanied the museum’s Free Spirit exhibit.
Seriously Moving Images 
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