EXCLUSIVE: Canada’s first ever film, Evangeline (1914), is the inspiration for a new feature of the same name heralding from production company Ocean Playground Productions.
Based on Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poem, the story of silent film Evangeline centers on the 1755 expulsion of the Acadians, and follows a young woman separated from her fiancé during the deportation from Nova Scotia and her decades-long journey across North America to find him. It spans Atlantic Canada, the American colonies and Louisiana, tracing the migration that would ultimately give rise to Cajun culture.
The well-received original began filming in Nova Scotia in 1912 and is widely cited as Canada’s first feature-length dramatic film but is now considered lost. William Cavanaugh, who worked for Pathe Freres, and Edward P. Sullivan, who worked for Edison Studios, directed the film.
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