Canada Vignettes : Wop May

The great unmapped territories of the Canadian North and the impetus of war are reviewed in this film. This is the story of the barnstormers and bush pilots who explored Canada's vast hinterland, and of the heroes of World War II who flew the Bolingbrokes and the Ansons, the Mosquitoes and the Hurricanes. Part two of Salute to Flight.

In this age, when most people follow their dreams passively on the television screen, there are still a few individuals whose passion is for the real thing. Here is a film about such a one, with a passion for wings and the freedom of the skies. Filmed by Bill Mason, whose own devotion is to the canoe (Paddle to the Sea, and Path of the Paddle), the subject here is his friend Blake James, another filmmaker, who pilots his own one-man plane. The film is Mason's view of this "hobo of the skies," but it is also an adventure.

Who hasn't dreamed of flying? Head in the clouds, light-hearted giddiness, a surge of adrenaline, exhilarating freedom. Bush pilots of northern Quebec, the last of a dying breed, experience these sensations every day aboard their hydroplanes. Lakes, rivers, forests: this majestic North of open spaces and infinite silence is all theirs. Bush Pilot: Into the Wild Blue Yonder creates a vivid portrait of men who have not surrendered their childhood dreams, who soar above these breathtaking spaces, from boreal forests to the tundra of Quebec's Great North. In French with English subtitles.