Outdoors | Window on the winter sports of yesteryear

The end of the year often prompts us to look back. It’s time to dig into the archives of the National Film Board (NFB) to watch old documentaries on winter sports. It’s online and it’s free!

Descents and turns

It’s the good old days of skiing in the Laurentians, with a narrative that is both poetic and humorous. Master skier Pierre Jalbert demonstrates more or less forgotten turning techniques, such as the stemmbogen, the kick and the christiana. In 1948, the ski lifts were still a little rustic. To access wilder areas of the mountain, we put on skins (probably real ones).

Bernard Devlin and Roger Blais, 1948, 10 minutes

The art of skating

This really retro little film will appeal to figure skating enthusiasts. We see Olympic champion Barbara Ann Scott demonstrating compulsory figures, a discipline that has not been presented in competitions since 1990, in particular because it was terribly boring to watch. The techniques and aesthetics of skating have evolved a lot since 1948: a slightly bent free leg is no longer acceptable…

Sydney Newman, 1948, 11 minutes

snowshoers

This short film by Gilles Groulx and Michel Brault is the forerunner of the direct cinema that made the NFB famous. It depicts a convention of snowshoers in Sherbrooke, with an opening parade, snowshoe races and final celebrations. There is no narration, but you have to listen to the delicious dialogues captured on the spot. About the queen of the congress: “’Is beautiful not for laughs”, says one. “‘Isn’t that beautiful,” said the other.

Gilles Groulx and Michel Brault, 1958, 14 minutes

winter’s game

This wordless film begins with the horrors of winter: the storm, the shoveling, the ice. But quickly, he dwells on the pleasures of winter: improvised slides, street hockey, skiing, ski jumping, barrel jumping on skates and swimming in the river. We end with the slide: will the little guy survive the last descent?

Bernard Gosselin and Jean Dansereau, 1961, 14 minutes

Ice skating rink

It is one of Gilles Carle’s first documentaries at the NFB, with particularly expressive music by Claude Léveillée. Without any narration, the short film illustrates the life of a neighborhood ice rink: organized hockey games, games and races, free skating. No helmet in sight. And we never miss those old skates that pushed you to skate on the boot.

Gilles Carle, 1963, 10 minutes

cross-country skiing

Ah! the early 1970s! It was the advent of cross-country skiing, with its wooden skis, monochrome suits and large woolen socks. With very beautiful images, this short film follows four skiers in the snowy hills. There is no narration, but the music of Pierre F. Brault (the composer of the show’s songs Master key) brings a touch of humor.

Roger Rochat, 1970, 6 minutes

Tomorrow winter

In this other film on cross-country skiing, we return to a more classic form of documentary. We offer information on this expanding sport in 1974, starting with clothing (you have to see that mesh base layer…) and the equipment to bring. We talk about pushing and waxing techniques (with a blowtorch, no less) and we give the floor to the skiers, who explain their passion.

Therese Dumesnil, 1974, 26 minutes

Jack Rabbit – The Centennial Skier

Impossible to talk about cross-country skiing in Quebec without mentioning Herman “Jack Rabbit” Smith-Johannsen. This documentary traces the history of this pioneer, from his birth in Norway in 1875 to his centenary in the Laurentians in 1975. At 100, he was still cross-country skiing, less long, less quickly, but skiing background anyway.

William Brind, 1976, 28 minutes

The Crystal Pillar

Ice climbing enthusiasts will love this short film because it gives them a glimpse of the equipment of the late 1970s: strap crampons with not very sharp points, not very ergonomic ice axes and ice screws not very user-friendly. But even people who know little about it will be fascinated by the beauty of the site, right next to the Montmorency falls.

Marc Hébert, 1978, 15 minutes

Suggested video

To get in the spirit

A small excerpt from Descents and turnswith ski champion Pierre Jalbert

number of the week

1919

This is the foundation of the first French-speaking ski club in Quebec, the Club de ski Mont-Royal d’Amérique.