"Un-staged documentary footage shot and edited by Sallie Wagner. Sallie's description of the film: 'Shorty Boys, Little Shorty building a hogan, Crip Chee and his hogan, grandson in doorway. Blackrock in front of hogan, Tchindi, Rose Martin doing laundry, cooking shelter at squaw dance, Hosteen Glish getting water, Bent Knee getting wood, Hosteen Glish making a canoe out of a log, Hosteen Glish's granddaughter weaving, digging yucca root for soap, Navajo washing her hair, Hosteen Glish making a cradle board'." New Mexico State Archives.
"There are precious few sails in this production which William Messner has called Blades and Sails. But there is a powerful lot of cinema in its smooth 650 feet of Kodachrome. And there is a wealth of flashing blades. The blades are bandied about by Ernest Riedel, a gaunt length of rawhide and muscle, otherwise known as the national, international and Olympic canoe champion. During the smoothly plotted course of Riedel's exposition of canoeing techniques. Mr. Messner demonstrates his own championship calibre behind the camera. His angles are so right as to seem effortless — though you suspect they're not. His follow-through is as deft as a sweeping blade and his cutting as crisp as a speeding birchbark. Blades and Sails is informative, entertaining and sound cinema — which is quite a combination in any man's movie." Movie Makers, Dec. 1951, 410.
A Camper and His Canoe was filmed at Camp Kawagama, the youth summer camp run by the filmmaker and his wife.
"Film about canoeing, featuring members of the Charles Devenish Woodley family." Library and Archives Canada.
Film record of the third international canoe race over the St. Maurice River in 1936.
"The 1966 Centennial canoe race, including preparations at Tulista Park in Sidney, the race and the finish. Good close-ups of the canoeists. A large, three-masted sailboat -- possibly an imitation Chinese junk?" British Columbia Archives.
"This film shows the Kegg family stripping basswood and birch barks and using the bark to make baskets and canoes." Worldcat.org
"Amateur silent film of a boy scout troop making a fiberglass canoe step by step from a mold, from start to finish. Boy scouts all help in each part of the process. They then take their finished canoes on a trip where they learn how to row their new canoes and camp out on the river." Chicago Film Archives
"The refreshing story of a voyage by river into the Canadian wilds, presented by F. R. Crawley in Glimpses of a Canoe Trip, is really deserving of a less modest introduction than that implied by the word, "glimpses." Here, within one reel, is as comprehensive a movie tale of a trip by canoe as one could desire. The entertaining continuity, based on the natural sequence of events, is not loaded with unimportant detail; instead, footage is conserved for the more interesting episodes involved in paddling and portages. These are given a well rounded treatment that has genuine entertainment value coupled with a freshness of approach born of the enthusiasm of the maker. This sort of thing communicates itself to the audience, especially when photography, editing and titling are as well handled as they are here." Movie Makers, Dec. 1937, 629.
"Film documenting a gathering of guides from all over Canada meeting at [Lake William], N.S. Shown are the many events and competitions in which the guides partake including canoe portage, fly casting, canoe tilting, log burling and canoe racing." Nova Scotia Archives.
Total Pages: 2