My Ancestors Were Rogues and Murderers | |
---|---|
Directed by | Anne Troake |
Written by | Anne Troake |
Produced by | Kent Martin [1] |
Cinematography | Nigel Markham [1] |
Music by | Ross Murray , Jean Martin , Justin Haynes |
Production company | National Film Board of Canada |
Release date |
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Running time | 100 min. [1] |
Country | Canada |
Language | English |
My Ancestors Were Rogues and Murderers is a 2005 National Film Board of Canada documentary film by Newfoundland filmmaker Anne Troake, which explores her own family's ties to the seal hunt and seeks to mount a defense for the now-controversial practice. Troake documents how the seal hunt began to attract international outrage in 1977 following opposition from the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) and a high-profile visit by French film star and animal rights activist Brigitte Bardot. [2] [3]
Through interviews with family members in Twillingate, including cousin and sealing spokesperson Garry Troake who died at sea just before the start of production, the director advances the argument that sealing is a time-honoured and environmentally responsible industry, while debunking what she sees as misconceptions about the hunt, including how seals are actually killed. [3] [4]
Troake had planned on making the film prior to the death of her cousin Garry in 2000, and decided to continue with it as a way to honour his memory and continue his fight. My Ancestors Were Rogues and Murderers makes ample use of his commentary including accusations of hypocrisy against the IFAW. The film's title is taken from a quote by the filmmaker's grandmother, Jessie Troake Drover, who is also featured. [2] [3]
My Ancestors Were Rogues and Murderers was named Best Newfoundland Documentary at the 2005 Nickel Film Festival. It was also broadcast on the CBC News Network in April 2006. [5] [6] According to Troake, it was difficult to market the film outside Newfoundland and Labrador, but people's attitudes would change once they had seen the film. [2]
In 2007, the Government of Canada stated that they were using the film in Europe as part of an advocacy plan to defend the image of the Canadian seal hunt, with screenings arranged for European government officials, non-governmental organizations, trade associations and the general public. [7]
Paul Franklin Watson is a Canadian-American environmental, conservation and animal rights activist, who founded the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, an anti-poaching and direct action group focused on marine conservation activism. The tactics used by Sea Shepherd have attracted opposition, with the group accused of eco-terrorism by both the Japanese government and Greenpeace. Watson is a citizen of Canada and the United States.
Daniel E. Williams is a Canadian politician, businessman, and lawyer who served as the ninth premier of Newfoundland and Labrador between November 6, 2003, and December 3, 2010.
Loyola Hearn, is a Canadian diplomat and former politician. Hearn is the former Canadian Ambassador to Ireland. He served as a Member of the House of Commons of Canada from 2000 to 2008, and as Minister of Fisheries and Oceans from February 6, 2006 to October 30, 2008.
RV Farley Mowat was a long-range, ice class ship. Originally built as a Norwegian fisheries research and enforcement vessel, she was purchased by the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society in Edinburgh, Scotland, in August 1996. Originally named Sea Shepherd III, the name was changed in 1999 to Ocean Warrior, before eventually being renamed in 2002 after Canadian writer Farley Mowat.
Twillingate is a town of 2,121 people located on the Twillingate Islands ("Toulinquet") in Notre Dame Bay, off the north eastern shore of the island of Newfoundland in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. The town is about 100 kilometres (62 mi) north of Lewisporte and Gander.
Seal hunting, or sealing, is the personal or commercial hunting of seals. Seal hunting is currently practiced in nine countries: Canada, Denmark, Russia, the United States, Namibia, Estonia, Norway, Finland and Sweden. Most of the world's seal hunting takes place in Canada and Greenland.
SS Southern Cross was a steam-powered sealing vessel that operated primarily in Norway and Newfoundland.
Land and Sea is a locally produced Canadian documentary television show broadcast on CBC Television. It has been on the air since 1964 on CBC owned-operated station CBNT in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador, and is the longest-running regional television program on CBC Television. Originally a black-and-white program, it began broadcasting in colour in the late 1960s. There is also a Maritime version of Land and Sea which is broadcast on the full CBC network on Sunday afternoons, and episodes from that version are often alternated with Newfoundland-based episodes.
Abram Kean was a sealing captain and politician from Flowers Island, Newfoundland. He was famous for his success in sealing, with capturing over a million pelts, and infamous for his role in sending 78 men to their deaths in the 1914 Newfoundland Sealing Disaster.
Lewis Varick Frissell was an American documentary filmmaker. His last film, The Viking, set in Newfoundland, involved the largest loss of life of a film production crew in history. This film was also "the first film to record sound and dialogue on location".
M/V Christmas Seal was a Canadian medical ship operating in Newfoundland from 1947 until 1970. Formerly a United States air-sea rescue vessel during World War II, she later served as an oceanographic research platform before sinking in 1976.
David Lloyd Blackwood was a Canadian artist known chiefly for his intaglio prints, often depicting dramatic historical scenes of Newfoundland outport life and industry, such as shipwrecks, seal hunting, iceberg encounters and resettlement. He also created paintings, drawings and woodcuts.
Gerry Rogers is a Canadian documentary filmmaker and politician. She was leader of the Newfoundland and Labrador New Democratic Party from 2018 until 2019. She served in the Newfoundland and Labrador House of Assembly as NDP MHA for the electoral district of St. John’s Centre from 2011 to 2019. She became the party's leader after winning the April 2018 leadership election. She resigned as party leader prior to the 2019 provincial election and did not seek re-election.
Frederick Morrissey Johnson was a Progressive Conservative party member of the House of Commons of Canada. He was born in Little Catalina, Newfoundland and became a business manager, businessman and master mariner by career.
Gail A. Shea is a Canadian politician who served as the Member of Parliament for Egmont from 2008 to 2015. She was previously a member of the Legislative Assembly of Prince Edward Island from 2000 to 2007, representing the electoral district of Tignish-DeBlois as a member of the Progressive Conservative Party.
Salvage is a town located on the Eastport Peninsula of the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador. The town had a population of 108 in the Canada 2021 Census.
Canada's 2008 annual commercial seal hunt in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and around Newfoundland, Quebec and Nova Scotia began on March 28. The hunting season lasts from mid-November to mid-May, but the hunt mainly occurs in March and April. Canada's seal hunt is the world's largest hunt for marine mammals.
Marine Mammal Regulations (MMR) is a set of rules that govern the taking and treatment of marine mammals in Canada. The regulations are part of the Fisheries Act.
The Viking, also known as White Thunder and Vikings of the Ice Field, is a 1931 Newfoundland/American adventure film about sealing directed by George Melford. The Viking was the first film to record sound and dialogue on location, with the use of magnetic wire recording. It is best known for the explosion aboard the ship SS Viking during filming, in which many members of the crew, including producer Varick Frissell, were killed. It remains the incident with the largest loss of life in film history.
Angry Inuk is a 2016 Canadian Inuit-themed feature-length documentary film written and directed by Alethea Arnaquq-Baril that defends the Inuit seal hunt, as the hunt is a vital means for Inuit to sustain themselves. Subjects in Angry Inuk include Arnaquq-Baril herself as well as Aaju Peter, an Inuit seal hunt advocate, lawyer and seal fur clothing designer who depends on the sealskins for her livelihood. Partially shot in the filmmaker's home community of Iqaluit, as well as Kimmirut and Pangnirtung, where seal hunting is essential for survival, the film follows Peter and other Inuit to Europe in an effort to have the EU Ban on Seal Products overturned. The film also criticizes NGOs such as Greenpeace and the International Fund for Animal Welfare for ignoring the needs of vulnerable northern communities who depend on hunting for their livelihoods by drawing a false distinction between subsistence-driven Inuit hunters and profit-driven commercial hunters.