The Rise and Fall of the Great Lakes is a 1968 Canadian short film. It is a humorous geography

Geography

Geography is the science that studies the lands, features, inhabitants, and phenomena of Earth. A literal translation would be "to describe or write about the Earth". The first person to use the word "geography" was Eratosthenes...

 lesson where a tour of the Great Lakes

Great Lakes

The Great Lakes are a collection of freshwater lakes located in northeastern North America, on the Canada – United States border. Consisting of Lakes Superior, Michigan, Huron, Erie, and Ontario, they form the largest group of freshwater lakes on Earth by total surface, coming in second by volume...

 is made by a lone canoeist who experiences most of the cataclysmic changes of ages of lake history. Words of the lesson are sung in familiar ballad

Ballad

A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads were particularly characteristic of British and Irish popular poetry and song from the later medieval period until the 19th century and used extensively across Europe and later the Americas, Australia and North Africa. Many...

 form.

Some animation is employed in the film to show the coming and going of the Ice Age

Ice age

An ice age or, more precisely, glacial age, is a generic geological period of long-term reduction in the temperature of the Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental ice sheets, polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers...

 when the lakes were born, but most of the other episodes of lake history are suggested by camera tricks that affect the canoeman and so emphasize the change. There is, for instance, a scene where open water suddenly turns to ice, freezing the canoe in mid-paddle. Such slapstick

Slapstick

Slapstick is a type of comedy involving exaggerated violence and activities which may exceed the boundaries of common sense.- Origins :The phrase comes from the batacchio or bataccio — called the 'slap stick' in English — a club-like object composed of two wooden slats used in Commedia dell'arte...

 effects are employed to mark all the major changes in this history of the Great Lakes.

Sudden changes of level leave the canoe stranded, or submerge the traveller’s tent. Between times the camera examines surviving evidence of the passage of the Ice Age – the striations of the rocks, the folds in the earth of farm landscapes viewed from the air. Toward the end of the film the canoeman seems once more safe from violent change and contentedly paddles across crystal-clear waters. Casually he dips his cup for a drink and savours the good water. But on the second dip the lake has changed. This time when he drinks is not pleasant. The lakes that have survived so many changes without losing their purity are now seen to be sadly fouled by man.

Production

The Rise and Fall of the Great Lakes was created by the NFB for the educational market, with working title

Working title

A working title, sometimes called a production title, is the temporary name of a product or project used during its development, usually used in filmmaking, television production, novel, video game, or music album.-Purpose:...

 Evolution of the Great Lakes. The film proved so popular with children and teachers in test screenings that the film was blown up to 35 mm for theatrical distribution. However, Mason was disappointed when the NFB producer made several changes to his finished work, feeling he had lost creative control.It is an extremely scintillating video.

Credits

• Directed by: Bill Mason
  Bill Mason
  Bill Mason was an award-winning Canadian naturalist, author, artist, filmmaker, and conservationist, noted primarily for his popular canoeing books, films, and art as well as his documentaries on wolves. Mason was also known for including passages from Christian sermons in his films...
  
  
• Writing credits: Bill Mason
• Cast: Blake James as Canoeist

External links

• Watch The Rise and Fall of the Great Lakes at NFB.ca