Grain elevator nostalgia moves curator to resurface film gems you can watch for free

They're known as old prairie sentinels, butgrain elevators are having a moment right now at the National Film Board.

It's part of acollaborationwithThe Western Produceras the agricultural newspaper marksits 100th year, resulting in several film board gems being dusted offfor a collection called Perspectives from the Prairies.

Each month, the film board uploads something from its archivesand the paper thenwrites a story to promote it. The series which can be viewed for free on the National Film Board's website started in Augustand has received thousands of views.

Among the new films this monthis the 1985 classicThe Move,which collection curatorCamilo Martin-Florezcalls a super beautiful five-minute film that is amazing in every sense: cinematography, sound and voices.

"It is on a Saskatchewan grain elevator being moved after nearly a halfcentury of use from Greenstreet to Marshall, Sask., which is about 20 miles away," he said of the film Larry Baumanmade with the assistance of CBC Saskatchewan.

"The film follows the lifting and transporting of the nine-storey, 200-tonne structure and examines the feelings of the people as they witness the final passing of their one and only grain elevator."

That nostalgic feeling

Emotions were high. One youngster referred to as Danny down atthe inn cried while watching the elevator on the move because he was afraid the school bus driver would no longer know how to get him home.

The second film, Grain Elevator, was filmed in1981 and is a 15-minute filmdocumentary that basically portrays the importance of grain elevatorsas well-known landmarks that once dominated the prairie skyline.

"For most of the people in the prairies, it brings a lot of nostalgia and memories for their childhood," saidMartin-Florez.

Nearly 40 years since it was filmed, the emotions surrounding grain elevatorsremain.

Reclaimed wood from grain elevators is extremely popular. One Alberta woodworker used26 elevators' worth of timber to build his Bragg Creek home, hunting all over the prairies for the wood that can date back hundreds of years.

WATCH |'Sometimes the hunting, the finding, is part of the joy of the project':

Alberta man builds home from old grain elevator timber

7 years ago

Duration 2:30

Nanton'sgrain elevators were granted historic designation in 2022, butthe Alberta town went as far as 3D scanning the structures to preserve them digitally in the future.

Photographers have travelled across the prairies capturing the magnificence of the structures before they disappeared, with some even becoming a hazard near the end.

Canada's oldest grain elevator burned to the ground in April 2022 125 years' worth of aged wood ignited in a flash by a single ember after the process of dismantling started.

Oftentimes spectators of all shapes and sizes would gather to watch either a demolitionor relocation.

The third film captures just that. Death of a Skylinereveals the story of these disappearingprairie cathedralswitha "lively cast of characters."

Martin-Florez chose the theme of grain elevators to mark Canada History Week, Nov.20-26.

At one time, more than 5,000 grain elevators graced Alberta skylines.

"Since grain elevators are National Historic sites now preserved by Canada's heritage [department], I decided to program three films that depict these Canadian sites," he said.

Future themes include cowboys and the 1940s recession, but there is no shortage of films to choose from.

The National Film Board with the goal of portraying Canada for Canadians has produced more than 13,000 films, but only about half of them have been digitized.

It'sa lengthy process. Films are kept in little cans, then runthrough a digital machine that scans each individual frame. The film, once completed, is sent to the colourizer, then to asound corrector beforepost production.