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En r'venant de St-Hilarion

Accession number: 
1959.0020
Production Years: 
1959 to 1960

Languages:

Film Properties: 
Length (feet): 
1051 (16mm)
Length (minutes): 
30
Holding Institutions: 

Library and Archives Canada: 16mm, Beta.
"The village of St. Hilarion, near the hills of the Charlevoix County in Quebec, has maintained a tradition of folk songs and folk singers. This film looks at the traditional soirée which features a nightly gathering of the community, and the singing of these traditional songs. Various male singers take their turn in the spotlight leading the gathering in the singing of one of the songs passed down through generations, originating in France. These singers include Petit Tremblay, Wilbrod Lavoie and Ambroise DuFour. There are only four singers who hold all the songs of St. Hilarion in their heads. Part of a living tradition, a folk song is never sung the same twice. Joseph Tremblay, 71, is shown dancing a jig accompanied musically by the Group of St. Hilarion. A young boy does his version of a jig afterwards to the encouragement of the adults, an example of how the tradition is passed to each generation. There is some concern that with the arrival of television in the previous year, the next generation may not continue the tradition."

Bibliography: 

Online database National Film Board of Canada.
"A virtual prisoner of the winter snows that block its roads, the village of St.Hilarion, to justify its name, revels in the joys of the jig and the 'turlutte', the lilting songs that tell the humorous tale, ever new and yet essentially always the same, about the sorry fate of the one who gives into temptation."

"Pour passer l'hiver un village de l'arrière-pays ne peut survivre sans la mémoire des chansons et les accords de la danse."