Ten Years in Manitoba is a Canadian documentary film, directed byJames Freer and released in 1898.[1] Although nowlost, it is generally credited as the first known film by a Canadian filmmaker.[2] Consisting of footage of various scenes from the province ofManitoba, the film was exhibited in theUnited Kingdom in April 1898 as part of a promotional campaign, sponsored by theCanadian Pacific Railway, to encourageimmigration to the province.[3]
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".[4] Other scenes whose titles are not confirmed reportedly depicted Freer's own home and family,[3] as well as footage ofThomas Greenway, the Premier of Manitoba,stooking grain on his own farm.[5]
TheManitoba Historical Society has, however, confirmed that at least part of Freer's film appears to have consisted of footage filmed by other people;[5] 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 exhibitingkinetographs in various Manitoba communities that included farm harvesting footage, including Greenway stooking grain, although they engaged in a dispute through letters to theWinnipeg Free Press as to who had been the creator of the films.[5] Freer appears to have acquired their films, and included them inTen Years in Manitoba along with some of his own original footage.[5]
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