Across the Great Divide 2005
Distributed by National Film Board of Canada, 1123 Broadway, Suite 307, New York, NY 10010; 800-542-2164
Produced by Deb Proc
Directed by Tom Radford
VHS, color, 52 min.
Jr. High - Adult
Canadian Studies
Date Entered: 01/15/2007
Reviewed by Marianne D. Muha, E. H. Butler Library, State University of New York College at BuffaloThis video, part of the Great Northern Wilderness series, is a fascinating look at Canada’s great prairies into the Rocky Mountains to the Pacific Ocean. It examines the animal and plant life found there and includes beautiful filming of this forbidding land.
The animal life includes coyotes, buffalo, grizzly bears, black bears, moose, caribou, big horned sheep, mountain goats and elk. Marine life includes salmon, octopus, mussels, sea urchins, crabs and killer whales. Bird life includes the majestic bald eagle, sand hill cranes and countless sea birds. The narrator describes the feeding, breeding and migratory patterns of each group. The plant life includes the hearty larch trees, western hemlock and red cedar.
The area known as the Alberta Badlands is home to the Continental Divide. This is where the waters of the Athabaska, Saskatchewan and Columbia Rivers flow to the Atlantic, Pacific and Arctic Oceans.
The narrator describes how this vast region is a treasure trove for paleontologists with its plentitude of dinosaur fossils.
This film is recommended for libraries with Canadian studies collections.