The time: New Year's Eve, late 1800s. The place: Gatineau Valley, Quebec. A group of loggers, working in an isolated winter camp, yearn to celebrate New Year's Eve with their loved ones. But the river is frozen, the sky is dark, and swirling snow makes travelling treacherous. If the men want to see their families, their only choice is to make a pact with the devil to ride in a flying canoe.
While pacts with the devil are the stuff of legends from another time, the cautionary tale of The Flying Canoe has a resonance for modern life. Original music and bold animation preserve the spirit of this well-known Quebec legend derived from La Chasse-galerie, first published in 1891 by Honoré Beaugrand. Hand-drawn animation scanned and coloured on computer.
NFB (1996)
Runtime: 11 minutes