2007 – Digital video and archival film. Colour and B/W. 16 min.
Northland: Long Journey is an evocative meditation on filmmaker Edie Steiner’s quest for new truths regarding her father's death from occupational illness three decades prior. The film revisits an early National Film Board of Canada film, where her mining father is posed as a heroic worker. He later died from exposures to workplace toxins, but his death was officially denied to be related to his work environment. A generation later, new scientific evidence amended the original legal and medical judgments, and the process of making the film became an appeal for justice. Filmed in a small mining community in Northwestern Ontario, the film explores how truth is shaped by phenomena over time.
Genres & Themes: Alternative, Independent, Educational, Environmental, Family, Human Rights, Women, Senior/Aging.
Distribution:
Canadian Filmmakers Distribution Centre
Extra Sensory Productions Inc.
Producer, Director, Editor, Cinematographer: Edie Steiner
Editor: Rie Koko
Music Composer: Matt Stine
Additional Music: Cheryl Ann Fulton, Malcolm Lewis, Colin Offord
Additional Photography: Jeff Winch
Consulting Editor: Josephine Massarella
Narration Recording: John SwitzerSound
Sound Mix: Steve Munro, Trackworks Inc.
Special thanks to: Stephen Lewis, Rick Hamilton, Lloyd Tataryn, Lottie Steiner
Historical Footage Courtesy of the National Film Board of Canada.
Special Merit Award, 2008 Festival of Nations, Austria
Best Documentary Short, 2008 Reno Film Festival
Final Cut Award, 2008 Lake Havasu Film Festival
People's Choice Award, 2007 Bay Street Film Festival
Canadian International Labour Film Festival
Cinéfest Sudbury International Film Festival
DC Labor FilmFest, Washington
Planet In Focus International Environmental Film Festival, Toronto
The Factory, Hamilton Media Arts
Festival of Nations, Austria
Hazel Wolf Environmental Film Festival, Seattle
Reno Film Festival, Nevada
Indie Spirit Film Festival, Colorado Springs
Lake Havasu Film Festival, Arizona
Buffalo/Niagara Film Festival
Female Eye Film Festival, Toronto
Eco Arts and Media Festival, York University, Toronto
Bay Street Film Festival, Thunder Bay.
Opening film of the festival and World Premiere.
ACTION: A key narrative in Northland: Long Journey is occupational health and safety. The filmmaker's father died of toxins in his workplace that were officially denied to be occupation-related, but later science proved the earlier judgment wrong.
Agencies that assist injured workers and their families: