The Loon's Necklace

The Loon's Necklace (Le Collier magique) is a Canadian film, produced and directed by F. R. Crawley and released in 1948. It recounts the Tsimshian legend of how the loon received the distinctive band of white markings on its neck. Story The Loon's Necklace is based on a folk tale known across Alaska, Northern Canada, and Greenland, The Blind Man and the Loon. The variant of the tale used by Crawley, and with the advice of ethnographer Marius Barbeau, was recorded during the early 1930s in British Columbia by National Museum of Canada anthropologist Douglas Leechman. The film centers around Kelora, a blind Tsimshian medicine man who lived in the British Columbia village of Shalus and spent his time at the river, with the Loon, who he believed was his father. One year, a bad winter left the village close to famine and it was decided that the village would travel to a neighbouring village to trade for food. Kelora warned that this would leave the village, and the Loon, unprotected against wolves, but his warning was ignored. He put on his sacred dentalium shell necklace and chanted sacred songs; this caused magic arrows to appear and kill the wolves. In the spring, Kelora went in search of the Loon and asked that his sight be restored. The Loon had Kelora climb onto his back and swam four times beneath the water's surface. After the fourth swim, Kelora could once again see. In gratitude, he tossed his necklace of shells at the Loon; the collar wrapped itself the bird's neck and a few shells broke off and landed on its back. Production Crawley shot the film in Quebec, with a local naturalist as his guide. He filmed the loons in their natural habitat, and used a combination of photography, cell animation and unusual colour and lighting arrangements to achieve the film's mysterious atmosphere.