A shot of the Grande Prairie Ski Club, circa 1965, in the film "Wapiti Ski Hill", which is a part of the Movie Monday project (Courtesy: South Peace Regional Archives / YouTube)

By Shaun Penner

Historical Films

South Peace history being showcased on YouTube, Facebook with Movie Mondays

Sep 4, 2020 | 1:01 PM

Films that have captured the history of the Grande Prairie area are now being featured on YouTube by the South Peace Regional Archives (SPRA).

The archives’ Movie Monday project will see 52 digitized amateur and home films featured on its YouTube, blog, and Facebook pages each Monday for the next year. Executive Director at the SPRA Alyssa Currie says each chosen films will be featured in an educational blog post on its platforms.

“(Which will) give our community the opportunity to learn a little bit more about the archives and about the archival record of our community in this new medium, that many of our users probably aren’t aware exists here at the archives.”

The films have been remastered from 8 and 16 mm film, as well as video cassettes. Currie says the films date as far back as the 1950’s and give a vivid glimpse into the daily lives of people and families in the south Peace Region, as well as many special events of years gone by.

“It’s a mix of both community events, there’s quite a few parades and community activities (like) Pioneer Days, those types of things. But there is also these really great family moments.”

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“Three family names, or four family names for that matter, that our users can expect to see a lot of are the Foster family, Jerry Stojan family, we’ve got Griff James and also the Ward-Marcy family,” said Currie.

“So, a lot of the films that we’ve selected do showcase intimate family moments. Those family films of the kids growing up, the family vacations, all those types of exciting things.”

Currie says she is very excited to be able to share the archives’ content with a wider audience going forward. She also sees this project as a way of providing important content and context for teachers in the region who are looking to share the history of the South Peace.

“Particularly with the start of the school year, I think it’s a really exciting timing that those things are being made accessible to educators in our community.

“At the time that they could probably use a little bit of extra help.”

Many of the films have been already posted to the SPRA YouTube page, and the first Movie Monday post will be going out on Labour Day.

The project was made possible by funding from the Swan City Rotary Club.

“The South Peace Regional Archives would like to sincerely thank Swan City Rotary Club for their financial support on this project.”