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Search Unending : The History of Oil Operations in Canada

Accession number: 
1947.0034
Alternate Titles: 
Toujours en quête de... : l'histoire de la recherche pétrolière
French version
Recherches incessantes
French version

Sponsors:

Directors:

Directors of Photography:

Production Years: 
1947

Languages:

Film Properties: 
Length (feet): 
700 (16mm)
Length (minutes): 
20
Holding Institutions: 

Library and Archives Canada: 16mm, VHS, Digibeta.
"The history of oil operations in Canada. Included are sequences on sharks, octopus, and shellfish in an aquarium; and micro-organisms - the raw materials of oil. Footage is seen of prospectors ranging into the hinterland by pack horse, canoe, and aircraft (a DeHavilland Dragon Fly) in search of oil. The evaluation of the prospectors' findings is done in an Imperial Oil laboratory. Sequences are seen on test drilling, the interpretation of test data in an office, road building in the bush by means of a bulldozer, and full-scale drilling operations."

Bibliography: 

Film News (September-October 1947): 26.
"The Board also choses [sic] films, made by private producers or industrial concerns, providing the subject is one of public significance and there is no advertising in commentary or visuals, the sponsor being mentioned only in the title shot (e.g., Esso's Old MacDonald Had a Farm, and Imperial Oil's film Search Unending."

Imperial Oil, Selection of 16mm Films Available Without Charge to Schools, Church Groups, Service Clubs and Similar Organizations (n.d.: Imperial Oil).
"Throughout the year, over an area that stretches for the U.S. border to the Northwest Territories and from Manitoba to the mountains of British Columbia, the search for oil in western Canada goes on. 'Search Unending' is the story of a new breed of Canadian adventurers and explorers - the oil geologists, geophysicists and drillers, who travel by truck, airplane, canoe, horse and even on foot, to blaze trails into untracked areas for new oil fields.
Their equipment ranges from the simple rock hammer to the super-sensitive seismograph and the air-borne magnetometer. But always their final tool is the drill. 'Search Unending' shows the split-second precision of drilling rig 'roughnecks' as they send their bits grinding down through thousands of feet of rock in the final test of whether oil is present or not.
It also, in some unusual microscopic scenes outlines the story of the formation of oil, telling how ancient seas covered more than half of North America millions of years ago, how minute marine life became buried under thousands of feet of silt and through the ages finally turned into petroleum."

Imperial Oil, Un choix de films 16mm prêtés, à titre grâcieux, aux maisons d'enseignement, clubs sociaux et autres groupements (n.d.: Imperial Oil).
"À l'année longue, de la frontière américaine aux Territoire du Nord-Ouest et depuis le Manitoba jusqu'aux Rocheuses, on cherche du pétrole dans l'Ouest canadien. 'Recherches incessantes' montre à l'oeuvre une nouvelle génération d'aventuriers et d'explorateurs canadiens - les géologues du pétrole, les géophysiciens et les foreurs de puits qui, par camion, par avion, en canot, à cheval et même à pied se frayent un chemin dans des contrées vierges, à la recherche de gisements de pétrole.
Leurs instruments varient du simple marteau de géologue au sismographe ultra-sensible et au magnétomètre aérien. La foreuse demeure toujours leur ultime outil. À un derrick, 'Recherches incessantes' décrit le travail précis à une fraction de seconde des 'roughnecks', alors que ces costauds font enfoncer le trépan à des milles pieds sous terre pour déterminer la présence ou l'absence de pétrole.
On montre des vues extraordinaires et considérablement agrandies d'êtres microscopiques ; on y retrace l'histoire de la formation du pétrole, rappelant que d'anciennes mers recouvraient plus de la moitié de l'Amérique du Nord, il y a plusieurs centaines de millénaires, et que les êtres marins infimes s'enfouirent graduellement sous des milliers de pieds de limon où, au cours des âges, ils se transformèrent en pétrole."