Pierre Radisson: Fjord and Gulf

Pierre Radisson: Fjord and Gulf (2017) presents the daily activity and environment of its eponymous Canadian Coast Guard Icebreaker. The CCGS Pierre Radisson works year round providing escorts for commercial shipping to ports cut-off by ice, scientific and search and rescue support, among other activities. Shot during the Pierre Radisson's work on the Saguenay Fjord and Gulf of St. Lawrence in Quebec during February 2016, the film provides a window into a portion of the invisible labour underpinning the Canadian economy. The film brings the deep winter landscapes of coastal Quebec into dialogue with intensive industrial activity of ore shipments from the mines of the Saguenay - Lac Saint-Jean. Throughout the film a 1970s naval architecture is presented alongside the activity of the crew, observed as shipboard life unfolds. The CCGS Pierre Radisson, named after a founder of the colonial enterprise the Hudson's Bay Company, plays a crucial role in the economic life of the nation yet outside the knowledge or field of view of most Canadians. As winter and summer ice in Canadian shipping channels is affected by climate change, the labour of this and other icebreakers in the Canadian fleet is shifting, parallel to broader environmental and societal changes. Shot in Super 16mm with a two-person crew of director/cinematographer Ben Donoghue and location sound recordist Noé Rodriguez the film embraces context, giving duration and breath to the images and sounds of the journey. Through a slow observational form the film brings the viewer onto the ship and into the journey instead of describing one.