http://www.orilliapacket.com/2014/06...ife-in-new-dvd
Local history comes to life in new DVD
By Gisele Winton Sarvis, Orillia Packet & Times
Monday, June 16, 2014 10:33:09 EDT PM
Four hundred years of life in Orillia is captured in a new three-hour DVD, Orillia: Canada’s Sunshine City.
“The video includes stories on everything in town,” said filmmaker Hugh Dimaline, who was born and raised in Orillia but has called Newfoundland home for the past 13 years.
Dimaline, 70, and his wife, Joan, who is originally from Penetanguishene, spent 30 months making the film, returning to Orillia six times to do research.
“I’m a fan of history and I just love capturing it on film,” Dimaline said from his Newfoundland home.
The video, which includes interviews with veterans and elders, features 14 chapters titled The Early Years, Industry, Churches, Business, The Farmers’ Market, Two Hospitals, Protecting Orillia, Education ... The New Industry, Tourism — Parades and Museums, Entertainment, Famous Faces, Sports, Personal Glimpses and Remember the Heroes.
Dimaline, a graduate of Orillia District Collegiate and Vocational Institute, was aided by former Orillia Museum of Art and History (OMAH) executive director Gloria Taylor and assisted by local historian Marcel Rousseau.
“We bookend the films with opening and closing paragraphs of Stephen Leacock’s Sunshine Sketches of a Little Town. It’s from 1912, but it still fits,” said Dimaline.
Mark Douglas, from Rama First Nation, was his source of information about the aboriginal history in the area and features how Rama was one of the few First Nations to buy their own property.
Dimaline said he shot about 60 hours of video and almost 3,000 still images were collected for the video.
“We had access to the old Grant films at OMAH from the 1930s,” he said.
There has been so much industry in Orillia, Dimaline said, it was difficult to choose what to put in and what to leave out.
“You have to pick and choose. You have to make sacrifices and shorten stories,” he said.
Many people aren’t aware, for example, how important Dorr Oliver was as a war-production centre.
Some of the stories are from oldtimers who have lived the history and reminisced about the old days. Some of the vignettes are hilarious, said Dimaline.
Beverly Lauer shares a funny story about the first liquor store opening in Orillia. She also talks about buying her mother a pound of butter as a gift; the cost was 30 cents.
Another funny story is that told by Francis Smith about his first day as chief of the Orillia Police Service.
“The beauty is when you hear the story from two or three people with the same detail, you know it must be true,” said Dimaline.
For famous residents such as Gordon Lightfoot, Dimaline said he chose to include vignettes of little-known facts.
Dimaline hopes the video will be of interest to young people so they can learn about their roots.
“The old people lived it. The youngsters need to learn it. When we do these films, we hope we can teach them. I hope youngsters will say, ‘I didn’t know this happened here.’”
Dimaline said he is proud of his chapter on churches, in which he profiles Anglican, United, Presbyterian and Catholic churches, but shows images of all the other churches in a montage.
Of all the chapters, Dimaline is closest emotionally to the Remember the Heroes, in which he features both the First World War and Second World War.
“We went down to the legion and interviewed the boys,” he said of chats with local veterans like Allan MacIntyre, Jim Jamieson and Sam Battalia.
Dimaline has a close connection to the military. An army brat, his father served in the Second World War and his grandfather served in the First World War.
Sheena Westcott-Sykes, collections manager of OMAH, said she is delighted to be able to sell the video to educate people about the history of Orillia. The double DVD is available at OMAH for $27.95, with $10 going to OMAH.
“Everybody wins,” she said. “It’s great to have that opportunity to have all those interviews with local people on DVD because some of those people interviewed have since passed away.”
Dimaline said he would make more of his footage available to OMAH for its records.
OMAH will screen highlights from the video Aug. 12 at 7 p.m. Admission is free and popcorn will be available.
ORILLIA history on DVD
