Rise and Fall of the Great Lakes

A canoe journey through the beautiful areas of the Great Lakes, formed over 10,000 years ago over successive Ice Ages. This geological and ecological history of the Great Lakes is accompanied by narration in ballad form. Eventually, the advance of civilisation becomes obvious with bulldozers felling trees and pushing earth, huge dams, ocean-going ships, factory chimney’s belching smoke and the effects of waste pollution on the Lakes themselves.
Complete catalog record
A short documentary from conservationist Bill Mason. Dramatizes, through animation and comic sequences, the modification of the Great Lakes Region caused by glaciation, post glacial uplift, and technology. Follows a canoeist, with musical commentary, as he violently experiences the changes of the ages. Shows that technology and its resulting pollution may yet cause the most profound changes to the Great Lakes basin. The lone canoeist lives through the changes of geological history, through Ice Age and flood, only to find himself in the end trapped in a sea of scum.

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  1. 16mm Filmography (legacy record) — title
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