''Ten Years in Manitoba'' is a Canadian documentary film, directed by

James Freer James Simmons Freer (4 January 1855 – 22 December 1933) was a Canadian filmmaking pioneer. Born in Woodstock, Oxfordshire Freer was a newspaper reporter who emigrated to Manitoba, Canada in 1888 from Bristol and became a farmer, settling s ...

and released in 1898."Manitoba’s moving pictures"
''

Winnipeg Free Press The ''Free Press'' (or FP; founded as the ''Manitoba Free Press''; previously known as the ''Winnipeg Free Press'') is a daily (excluding Sunday) broadsheet newspaper in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. It provides coverage of local, provincial, natio ...

'', August 17, 2013. Although now lost, it is generally credited as the first known film by a Canadian filmmaker. Consisting of footage of various scenes from the province of

Manitoba Manitoba is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada at the Centre of Canada, longitudinal centre of the country. It is Canada's Population of Canada by province and territory, fifth-most populous province, with a population ...

, the film was exhibited in the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

in April 1898 as part of a promotional campaign, sponsored by the

Canadian Pacific Railway The Canadian Pacific Railway () , also known simply as CPR or Canadian Pacific and formerly as CP Rail (1968–1996), is a Canadian Class I railway incorporated in 1881. The railway is owned by Canadian Pacific Kansas City, Canadian Pacific Ka ...

, to encourage

immigration Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not usual residents or where they do not possess nationality in order to settle as Permanent residency, permanent residents. Commuting, Commuter ...

to the province.Luke McKernan
"James Freer: The first Canadian filmmaker"
''

Who's Who of Victorian Cinema The pronoun ''who'', in English, is an interrogative pronoun and a relative pronoun, used primarily to refer to persons. Unmarked, ''who'' is the pronoun's subjective form; its inflected forms are the objective ''whom'' and the possessive '' ...

'', December 2012. The film was a compilation of short scenes, with titles including "Six Binders at Work in Hundred Acre Wheatfield", "Harvesting Scene, with Trains Passing By", "Pacific and Atlantic Mail Trains" and "Arrival of CPR Express at Winnipeg"."History of the Canadian Film Industry"
''

The Canadian Encyclopedia ''The Canadian Encyclopedia'' (TCE; ) is the national encyclopedia of Canada, published online by the Toronto-based historical organization Historica Canada, with financial support by the federal Department of Canadian Heritage and Society of Com ...

'', January 10, 2012. Other scenes whose titles are not confirmed reportedly depicted Freer's own home and family, as well as footage of

Thomas Greenway Thomas Greenway (25 March 1838 – 30 October 1908) was a Canadian politician, merchant and farmer. He served as the seventh premier of Manitoba from 1888 to 1900. A Liberal, his ministry formally ended Manitoba's non-partisan government, al ...

, the Premier of Manitoba,

stook A stook /stʊk/, also referred to as a shock or stack, is an arrangement of sheaves of cut grain-stalks placed so as to keep the grain-heads off the ground while still in the field and before collection for threshing. Stooked grain sheaves are ...

ing grain on his own farm.Ken Goldstein
"How Winnipeg Invented the Media"
''Manitoba History'' Number 70, Fall 2012. The

Manitoba Historical Society The Manitoba Historical Society is a historical society in the province of Manitoba, Canada. It was created in 1879 by an act of the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba The Legislative Assembly of Manitoba () is the deliberative assembly of the Mani ...

has, however, confirmed that at least part of Freer's film appears to have consisted of footage filmed by other people; several months earlier, a Winnipeg bartender named Richard Hardie, an American filmmaker named E. H. Amet and an entertainment producer named Cosgrove were known to have been exhibiting

kinetograph The Kinetoscope is an early motion picture exhibition device, designed for films to be viewed by one person at a time through a peephole viewer window. The Kinetoscope was not a movie projector, but it introduced the basic approach that woul ...

s in various Manitoba communities that included farm harvesting footage, including Greenway stooking grain, although they engaged in a dispute through letters to the ''

'' as to who had been the creator of the films. Freer appears to have acquired their films, and included them in ''Ten Years in Manitoba'' along with some of his own original footage.

References

External links

* 1898 films Canadian documentary films Films shot in Manitoba Lost Canadian films Compilation films Films set in Manitoba 1890s documentary films Canadian anthology films 1890s lost films 1890s Canadian films {{silent-documentary-film-stub