Morning on the Lièvre(Film, 1961)

Morning on the Lièvre is a 1961 short film, directed by David Bairstow for the National Film Board of Canada. The film depicts two men canoeing on the Lièvre River near Notre-Dame-de-la-Salette, Quebec. Five poems by the Canadian poet Archibald Lampman –Solitude, After Mist, Ambition, A Dawn on the Lièvre, and the 1888 classic Morning on the Lièvre, are narrated by broadcaster and poet George Whalley. The poems give a detailed description of the forest, providing a narrative timeline progressing from dawn to full day. Ambition closes the film by asserting Lampman's rejection of contemporary society and his choice to remain in nature. The scene was inspired by Lampman's friendship with civil servant and poet Duncan Campbell Scott; Scott had introduced Lampman to camping and the appreciation of nature, while Lampman inspired Scott to begin writing poetry. Due to poor weather and spoiled footage, Bairstow shot the film over two seasons, and in autumn, rather than in the spring, when Lampman actually took the trip that inspired the poem. He wanted the scenes to be linked by a recurring musical motif and commissioned original work from Eldon Rathburn. He took the advice of assistant director Stephen Greenlees, who had commented that the original footage was "... ()