The Land Between is a region in Ontario that was entirely overlooked and unrecognized - until recently. The discovery of this area is the legacy of Peter Alley (1927-2005), a retired business professor from the University of Toronto who cottaged in Gravenhurst. Peter looked at the land around him and realized that it differed ecologically, socially and economically from the Shield to the north and the arable lands to the south. The Ontario Visual Heritage Project has teamed up with The Land Between to explore the region’s extraordinary ecological diversity and cultural heritage through an HD documentary, designed to introduce the world to this undulating landscape of rocky barrens, majestic forests and endless rivers and lakes.
As a transition zone between the Canadian Shield and the St. Lawrence Lowlands, The Land Between contains elements from both zones, but also boasts elements that are entirely unique. 60% of the world’s alvars are here, and the region has a higher percentage of shoreline to area than anywhere else in Ontario. The saturated geography allowed the Anishinabek people to use the area as a key east-west corridor for thousands of years – cutting trails over land and plying the waters by canoe; the large rivers and the channels of the Trent Severn Waterway have been well traveled by the Anishinabek. The Natives also appreciated the area for its biodiversity; a thriving fishing economy was born of The Land Between’s plentiful waters, and the American Eel, now extirpated, was a plentiful resource providing both food and tools. The Land Between is a place where species from the north (the wolf, the raven and the river otter) meet with species from the south (the crow, the skunk and the woodchuck). However, the Anishinabek would not be the only ones to glean resources from this land - a brief period of European settlement brought in agriculture, mining and lumbering – which largely failed. A legacy of scattered settlements, second-growth forests, and countless ghost towns persists. As a result, The Land Between remains almost entirely in tact today, with over 90% natural cover. But this is a fragile and threatened environment. The Land Between’s water resources overlay barrens and areas with shallow soils, making them susceptible to contamination. Will Ontario’s hidden landscape survive the intensifying development pressure on the area’s shorelines? Will the American Eel ever again swim in its rivers? What can we learn from the Anishinabek – the region’s only self-sustaining inhabitants?
The story of The Land Between is a story of interaction between the animals, plants and
humans that have shared this hidden landscape for millennia. As such, our documentary will be a predominantly visual one, filled with stunning HD videography from land, water, and air - designed to instill our viewers a deep sense of the diversity, beauty, and fragility of this unparalleled area. Upon this visual foundation we will lay the stories themselves, told whenever possible on-location in The Land Between by the historians, researchers and Anishinabek elders who know them best. Selected cinematic re-creations will be staged to bring to life important cultural practices and historic moments. When available, sketches, pictographs, photographs and film will be used to support our story, along with beautifully designed 2D and 3D maps and, if necessary, 3D animated models. The sound track will be a mix of traditional Anishinabek songs combined with original cinematic music and local folk tunes.
When developing the story of place, the process of creation is often as important as the final story itself. An advisory committee of key stakeholders in The Land Between will guide the story at all phases of development. As a large component of this project will deal with regional First Nations history and culture, Anishinabek customs and protocol will be respected. For example, the location of any sacred sites we visit will not be directly identified. A local Anisinabek co-producer will be employed to act as a liaison between the First Nations communities, to ensure proper protocol is followed, and, when necessary, to translate the Anishinabek language. Elders and other interview subjects will be compensated for their time, not “mined” for their knowledge, and environmentally sensitive areas will be respected or circumvented during filming.
Interested in more information or participating in the Ontario Visual Heritage Project: The Land Between? Contact us today.
