288 - Paddle to the Sea, Canada, 1966. Dir. William Mason.

Sunday, October 16, 2017

288 - Paddle to the Sea, Canada, 1966.  Dir. William Mason.

A little boy carves an Indian in a canoe out of a single piece of wood.

The boy lives in a cabin in Ontario, on Lake Nipigon.

He melts some iron and pours it into a groove in the bottom to make it bottom heavy, so that it will sit upright in the water.

He paints it with fine brushes.

He paints a note on the bottom.

"I am Paddle to the Sea

Please put me back in the water"

When he finises he places it upright in the snow on the side of the hill.

And leaves it.

When the Spring comes and the snow softens, the boat, called "Paddle," slides down the side of the hill.

Into the lake.  Down the river.  Down to the sea.

Paddle traverses a path that can be mapped.  From Lake Nipigon to Lake Superior to Lake Michigan to Lake Huron to Lake Erie, over Niagara Falls, to Lake Ontario, down the Saint Lawrence River, out into the Gulf of Saint Lawrence, into the Atlantic Ocean.

Paddle encounters a beaver and a beaver dam, a saw mill, a fishing pole, boys, a dog, giant ships, falls, including Niagara Falls, river animals, a forest fire, and other challenges along the way.  There are times when it seems as though Paddle will not make it.

Holling C. Holling published the children's book Paddle to the Sea in 1941.  It won the Caldicott Award for children's books.

Bill Mason made the film 25 years later.

He spent four years raising the funding and two years filming.  He traveled more than twenty-two thousand miles.

Paddle to the Sea was nominated for an Academy Award.