North of Superior

Recently, Ontario Place Cinesphere celebrated it's 30th anniversary, I was priveleged to be working for IMAX at the time and to see the newly retouched transfer was just as stunning as 30 years ago. I still clearly remember my mother's gasp when the film opens to the fly-over of Lake Nipigon. Bill Houston also performed "Ojibway Country" live

This is the first, and most widely seen, of the Canadian IMAX films - a true classic that showed at Ontario Place for years. I saw it there in 1983, and years later discovered that my new wife's Father appeared in the movie (he was the game warden who hangs off the helicopter to tag a moose swimming across a lake). He has a frame of the 70mm film as a memento, but I've never found a DVD or VHS release from IMAX, even though all their newer films are available for purchase. Perhaps they feel that this one is too dated, or not exciting enough, but for those who have seen it, no doubt it is one they remember well. Also, I understand that on the 30th Anniversary of the Ontario Place IMAX (in 2001) they had a re-touched print of the film showing, and I would have thought that that might have stirred interest in a home video release. If anyone has other information on this, please add a comment here.

We sailed across lake Ontario from Youngstown, NY to spend weekends at Ontario Place in the early '70s. My father took me to this film. I was probably around 9 the first time. I went back on my own several times every summer to see it. I can't really find words to say how it moved me, even formed me in some way. While superficially gorgeous, it is deeply cultural and I will never forget it; it is forever rooted in my psyche.

The Cinesphere at Ontario Place in Toronto is the world's original IMAX theatre. The film that showcased the IMAX process there for years was this one, North of Superior. Did people get tired of seeing it again and again? No way, not with its combination of earth and sky, forest fires and swooping light plane rides.

It was wonderful to have the natural splendour of the province celebrated in such a spectacular film. We weren't used to seeing our own country on the big screen. Nowadays, it's even harder to find something as thoroughly and recognizably Canadian as this up there.

I first saw this the year it, and the first IMAX theatre, opened at Ontario Place in 1971. I must have seen it 50 times since as I worked there in subsequent summers and would sneak out from the employee lounge under the seating to watch the audience's reaction when the picture blows up from a small window to the full screen and they suddenly find themselves tearing along just above the waters of a northern lake.

I just noticed that it has been a regular feature at the Cinesphere this past summer and I'd go and see it again if I wasn't stuck in Vancouver. :-(