This Was the Time (1970)

Directed by

Eugene Boyko

Genre

documentary

Country

Canada

Runtime

16 min

Rating

8.0 of 10 from 1 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

This documentary follows Haida artist Robert Davidson as he carves and raises a totem pole in Haida Gwaii for the first time in nearly a century. It shows a potlatch ceremony and the community's revival of their traditions.

observationalcelebratoryculturalcontemplativehopefulgroundedrespectfuldetailed

What happens

This Was the Time is a Canadian documentary film, directed by Eugene Boyko and released in 1970. Created for the National Film Board of Canada, the film portrays the renaissance of Haida culture through its depiction of a potlatch ceremony in Haida Gwaii, culminating in artist Robert Davidson carving and erecting a totem pole in the community for the first time in nearly a century. In the 21st century, the NFB launched a project to counter the sometimes colonialist outsider perspectives reflected in many of its old documentaries on First Nations and Inuit cultures by commissioning indigenous filmmakers to make their own new films responding to and recontextualizing the older films. Christopher Auchter's Now Is the Time, a response to This Was the Time which mixed footage from the original film with contemporary footage including Davidson's own reflections on the project, was released in 2019. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

More like this

• Now Is the Time (2019)
• Haida Modern (2019)
• Bill Reid (1979)
• Totem: the Return of the G'psgolox Pole (2007)
• Totem: Return and Renewal (2007)
• Haida Gwaii: On the Edge of the World (2015)
• Pour la suite du monde (1963)
• Bill Reid Remembers (2022)