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The Fatal Flower was
originally a production of the Port Arthur Amateur Cinema
Society. In 1930 they began production on The Fatal
Flower, their third film, and the last they would
attempt to make.
A year earlier the group made history
by producing A Race for Ties, Canada's first feature-length
amateur film. The success of A Race for Ties led
them to make a comedy entitled Sleep Inn Beauty and
begin production on The Fatal Flower, a murder
mystery. The Port Arthur Amateur Cinema Society invested
in new equipment and sought new talent for what was to
be their most ambitious film project. Unfortunately, The
Fatal Flower was the last film that the Port Arthur
Cinema Society would attempt. Although they managed to
get it shot, the advent of "talkies" and the
Depression prevented them from finishing the film.
Then, 70 years later, Ron Harpelle and Kelly Saxberg "discovered" the film at the Library and Archives of Canada. With the support of a Burrit/Thompson Award, and a grant from the Audio-Visual Preservation Trust of Canada, a new group of filmmakers undertook the task of finishing The Fatal Flower. After deciding on the order for the scenes and playwright, Peter Raffo, was given the task of writing a scenario for the film. As he wrote, Kelly Saxberg began editing the film and musician Danny Johnson began composing an original score for the film. Historian Michel Beaulieu was commissioned to conduct research on the Port Arthur Amateur Cinema Society and a number of other people participated along the way. Finally, in 2004 "The Fatal Flower" bloomed again and it is a tribute to Canada's filmmaking heritage.
In conjunction with the finishing of the film, Ron Harpelle spearheaded "The Fatal Flower Project." This is an effort to bring the films of the Port Arthur Amateur Cinema Society back into circulation, and produce an educational website that allows teachers to use the films in the classroom. In addition, Ron Harpelle and Michel Beaulieu edited The Lady Lumberjack: An Annotated Collection of Dorothea Mitchell's Writings. To discover more about this combination of films, a book and a website, visit www.ladylumberjack.ca.
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