Ken Mitchell

Canada Vignettes: St. Laurent Pilgrimage

This very short film from the Canada Vignettes series documents the annual pilgrimage that members of Saskatchewan’s Métis Catholic community make to St. Laurent, a village in the Duck Lake area that became the Métis nation’s spiritual centre at the time of the 1885 Northwest Rebellion.

Shipbuilder

This film recreates the true story of Tom Sukanen, an eccentric Finnish immigrant who homesteaded in Saskatchewan in the 1920s and 1930s. Sukanen spent ten years building and moving overland a huge iron ship that was to carry him back to his native Finland. The ship never reached water.

Hounds of Notre Dame

It's the winter of 1940. Father Athol Murray - "Pere" to most that know him - is an opinionated, chain-smoking, hard drinking parish priest at Notre Dame College in Wilcox, Saskatchewan. His strong opinions include his disdain for socialism as epitomized by the CCF party in Saskatchewan and the current war which has claimed too many lives including those of former students, needing to raise money to operate the College by whatever means, and not wanting others to emulate his vices - especially not wanting the students and women to smoke - while he blissfully enjoys those vices himself.