James Simmons Freer (4 January 1855 – 22 December 1933) was a Canadian film-making pioneer. Born in

Woodstock, Oxfordshire Woodstock is a market town and civil parish, north-west of Oxford in West Oxfordshire in the county of Oxfordshire, England. The 2011 Census recorded a parish population of 3,100. Blenheim Palace, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, is next to W ...

Freer was a newspaper reporter who emigrated to

Manitoba , image_map = Manitoba in Canada 2.svg , map_alt = Map showing Manitoba's location in the centre of Southern Canada , Label_map = yes , coordinates = , capital = Winn ...

, Canada in 1888 from

Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...

and became a farmer, settling south of

Winnipeg Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in Canada. It is centred on the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, near the longitudinal centre of North America. , Winnipeg had a city population of 749, ...

, in the Brandon Hills district. Less than two years after the

Lumière Brothers Lumière is French for 'light'. Lumiere, Lumière or Lumieres may refer to: * Lumières, the philosophical movement in the Age of Enlightenment People *Auguste and Louis Lumière, French pioneers in film-making Film and TV * Institut Lumière, ...

exhibited the first film in

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

, Freer became the first Canadian filmmaker. He made films about the Canadian prairies, especially themes of farming and railways, which were shown as early as 1897. The

Canadian Pacific Railway Company Canadian Pacific Limited was created in 1971 to own properties formerly owned by Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR), a transportation and mining giant in Canada. In October 2001, CPR completed the corporate spin-offs of each of the remaining busines ...

noticed Freer's films and began to tour them throughout the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

in an effort to promote immigration to Canada. '' Ten Years in Manitoba'' was shown through the British Isles in 1898. The tour was so successful that a second tour of Freer's films took place in 1902. The second tour was sponsored by Sir Clifford Sifton, Canadian Minister of the Interior, who was eager to promote immigration to the Canadian west, especially those from English speaking countries. The second trip was not as successful a recruiting device because people had heard that Freer had downplayed Manitoba's mosquito problem and cold winters. This ended his film career and he later worked for the ''

Winnipeg Free Press The ''Winnipeg Free Press'' (or WFP; founded as the ''Manitoba Free Press'') is a daily (excluding Sunday) broadsheet newspaper in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. It provides coverage of local, provincial, national, and international news, as well as ...

'' and died in

in 1933.

References

External links

*
Who's Who of Victorian Cinema
{{DEFAULTSORT:Freer, James 1855 births 1933 deaths Canadian documentary film directors Film directors from Winnipeg People from Westman Region, Manitoba English emigrants to Canada Cinema pioneers