Year: 1960
Language: English and French
Format: 16mm Colour/Black & White
Runtime: 29 min
Director: René Bonnière
Producer: Pierre Perrault
Writer: Pierre Perrault, Judith Crawley
Production Company: Crawley Films Ltd,

La Traversée d’hiver à l’Île-aux-Coudres/Winter Crossing at Île-aux-Coudres (1960)
Attiuk (1960)
Le Jean Richard/The Jean Richard (1960)
Tête-à-la-baleine/Whalehead (1960)
L’Anse Tabatière/Winter Sealing at La Tabatière (1960)
Ka Ke Ki Ku (1960)
Anse-aux-Basques/White-Whale Hunters of L’Anse-aux-Basques (1960)
En revenant de St-Hilarion/Soirée at St-Hilarion (1960)
Diamants du Canada/Canadian Diamonds (1960)
Les Goélettes/On the Sea (1960)
Rivière-du-gouffre/Turlutte (1960)
La Pitoune/Three Seasons (1960)
Toutes Isles/Land of Jacques Cartier (1960)

This series of television films (shown on both Radio-Canada and the CBC and later distributed by the National Film Board) depicts the land, peoples and cultures of the North Shore of the Gulf of St. Lawrence and was derived from Pierre Perrault’s Radio-Canada radio series of the same name. Instead of using direct cinema techniques, which were already established, this series was shot in the traditional documentary manner: silent footage with a voice-over commentary added after the editing. As Michel Brault has remarked: “It is a literary creation on Pierre’s part, but based on the language of the people of that region.”

The films in the Au pays de Neufve-France serieswere released by the NFB in four separate volumes in 1997.

By: Peter Morris