''High Steel'' is a 1965 short
National Film Board of Canada
The National Film Board of Canada (NFB; french: Office national du film du Canada (ONF)) is Canada's public film and digital media producer and distributor. An agency of the Government of Canada, the NFB produces and distributes documentary f ...
documentary film directed by
Don Owen about
Mohawk Mohawk may refer to:
Related to Native Americans
* Mohawk people, an indigenous people of North America (Canada and New York)
*Mohawk language, the language spoken by the Mohawk people
* Mohawk hairstyle, from a hairstyle once thought to have been ...
Ironworkers from
Kahnawake
The Kahnawake Mohawk Territory (french: Territoire Mohawk de Kahnawake, in the Mohawk language, ''Kahnawáˀkye'' in Tuscarora) is a First Nations reserve of the Mohawks of Kahnawá:ke on the south shore of the Saint Lawrence River in Queb ...
building New York City skycrapers.
Synopsis
Featuring breathtaking sequences of workers walking along narrow steel beams high above street level, ''High Steel'' is based largely on the experiences of one Mohawk ironworker working in Manhattan, Harold McComber. The film contrasts the daring work of McComber and his coworkers in the skies above New York with life back home in Kahnawake. It also explains how the Mohawk people living across the
Saint Lawrence River
The St. Lawrence River (french: Fleuve Saint-Laurent, ) is a large river in the middle latitudes of North America. Its headwaters begin flowing from Lake Ontario in a (roughly) northeasterly direction, into the Gulf of St. Lawrence, connectin ...
from Montreal first gained their reputation for high steel work in the late 19th century, working on a railway bridge that ran through their land. However, as the film recounts through narration and archival photos, such a reputation came at a terrible cost: while working on the
Quebec Bridge
The Quebec Bridge (french: pont de Québec) is a road, rail, and pedestrian bridge across the lower Saint Lawrence River between Sainte-Foy (a former suburb that in 2002 became a western area of Quebec City) and Lévis, in Quebec, Canada. The p ...
further down river near Quebec City, dozens of Mohawks were among the 75 men killed during its 1907 construction collapse—with a devastating impact on the small community. While celebrating their courage and skill, the film also makes plain how Mohawks are forced to leave home in order to make a living, with McComber regretting that his sons have had to grow up without their father.
Production
The film's director of photography was
John Spotton, with
Don Francks as narrator,
Julian Biggs as producer, and with a song by
Bruce Mackay, "Mountains of Iron and Steel" (replacing
Gordon Lightfoot
Gordon Meredith Lightfoot Jr. (born November 17, 1938) is a Canadian singer-songwriter and guitarist who achieved international success in folk, folk-rock, and country music. He is credited with helping to define the folk-pop sound of the 1960 ...
, who was originally supposed to have provided music). The film was shot using 35 mm cameras, with film crews having to gain access to the construction site high above the ground by traversing a ladder from an adjacent building.
Reception
''High Steel'' received the
Canadian Film Award
The Canadian Film Awards were the leading Canadian cinema awards from 1949 until 1978. These honours were conducted annually, except in 1974 when a number of Quebec directors withdrew their participation and prompted a cancellation. In the 1970s ...
for Best Editing.
[ It also received a Special Youth Prize
from the ]Berlin International Film Festival
The Berlin International Film Festival (german: Internationale Filmfestspiele Berlin), usually called the Berlinale (), is a major international film festival held annually in Berlin, Germany. Founded in 1951 and originally run in June, the fest ...
.
Further reading
*
References
External links
*
* (requires Adobe Flash
Adobe Flash (formerly Macromedia Flash and FutureSplash) is a multimedia software platform used for production of animations, rich web applications, desktop applications, mobile apps, mobile games, and embedded web browser video players. Fla ...
)
*{{YouTube, Qrl6tOcvrUM
1965 short films
Films directed by Don Owen
Documentary films about First Nations
Documentary films about New York City
Films set in Manhattan
National Film Board of Canada short films
National Film Board of Canada documentaries
First Nations history in Quebec
Mohawk culture
Canadian short documentary films
Quebec films
1960s English-language films
English-language Canadian films
First Nations films
1960s Canadian films