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Expo 67

Accession number: 
1967.0007
Production Years: 
1963

Languages:

Film Properties: 
Length (feet): 
834 (16mm)
Length (minutes): 
23
Holding Institutions: 

Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario: 16mm.

Library and Archives Canada: 16mm, 1/4", VHS.
"Produced during the city of Montreal's preparation for the 1967 World Exhibition, this film offers a look at the fair's early stages of development and the preparation of the site. An analogy is made to the Klondike Gold Rush by Paul Break, director of advertising and promotion and is used by the filmmakers to link segments of the film. Initially, Break points out, people scoffed at the idea of gold finds but after it was discovered many converts arrived. The organizers were clearly hoping for the same response to Expo. Pierre Dupuy, ambassador and commissioner general, discusses the challenge of staging an event such as Expo and announces the main theme: Man and His World. The islands used for the site, Île Notre Dame a new island and St. Helen's Island which was extended at both ends to create additional land, are shown. The work was completed using dredges and trucks as the footage demonstrates. R. John Pratt, administrator and producer-entertainment, describes how the various components of the exposition will be situated on the island and mentions the entertainment anticipated. "...we'll have every type of entertainment that you can possibly have from the most cultural and artistic performing arts down to the most popular, even The Beatles or whoever the Beatles of 1967 are, we'll have them." The logistics of the fare, 30 million visitors estimated, required preparations including the construction of bridges, the Expo Express or "minirail" to carry visitors over the river, a subway, larger highways, heliports and new hotels. The deadline for completion was April 28, 1967. Commodore O.C.S. Robertson, head theme exhibits coordination, discusses the role of the exposition in society. He mentions great expositions of the past - Crystal, Paris - that have achieved changes in the way society lives and have brought in new technologies: "Perhaps this Expo, if it were smart enough, if we're imaginative enough, will not only point out the problems of our time, but may suggest some solutions to them; how we can form a better society." The organizers received many entrepeneurs with proposals wishing to be a part of Expo. An interview between a man with plans to build a 25 foot long car and Paul Break is shown. Architect Moshe Safdie, then 26, creator of Expo's Habitat is shown with a model of his creation and discusses this new form of city community along with world exhibitions in general. "the only moral justification for a world exhibition in which millions of dollars are invested is that it is of a direct benefit to the economy - intellectual development of its time and so on - they act as catalysts ... [exhibition] making it possible to realize these ideas physically ... where otherwise it may take 20 or 30 years for the economy to adjust itself to make it possible." The film concludes with an encouragement to the viewer and exhibitors to participate and become a part of the exhibition, if they are prospectors with vision."