Seriously Moving Images

This video clip comprises edited excerpts from silent 16mm film footage shot by Vancouver filmmaker Alfred E. Booth (1892-1977) of Travel Films. In the 1930s and 1940s, Booth travelled extensively in the BC Interior, shooting footage of the various regions and communities, including their amenities, businesses, and people. This footage was for use in films promoting the communities as travel and commerce destinations. In most cases, the completed films have not survived; but some of the raw footage and out-takes are preserved at the BC Archives.

The Nakusp footage includes views of the main street and residents, the retired sternwheeler S.S. Bonnington, the cenotaph, the Arrow Lakes Hospital, and activity at a sawmill. At 3:15 in the clip, there is a brief sequence shot across the lake in Edgewood. It shows the Arrow Lake Hotel, Edgewood General Store, and residents at the lakeshore for the arrival of the S.S. Minto. The latter shot is very brief in the original, so I have “stretched” the shot (to render it in slow-motion), and concluded with a freeze-frame made from the last image.

The source film is the compilation reel [Kootenay-Boundary area] : [footage and out-takes], one of 39 film reels in the Alfred E. Booth fonds at the BC Archives.

For more examples of BC Interior and Vancouver footage shot by Alfred E. Booth, see the following blog posts:

• Greenwood and Phoenix, BC (ca. 1939)
• White Way Laundry & Dry Cleaners (Kamloops, ca. 1937-1939)  (by Chantaal Ryane)
• Bottling Soda Pop in Kamloops (ca. 1937)
• A Pioneer Jetliner Visits YVR, 1955