New documentary focuses on Island co- ops

Building a Better World: A Co- operative History of P. E. I. to be screened this coming week

To help commemorate the International Year of Cooperatives, the P. E. I. Cooperative Council charged itself with creating a featurelength documentary film that chronicles the history and development of cooperatives throughout the province over the past 150 years.

After almost a year of production, the film is now ready to be released. Entitled Building a Better World: A Co- operative History of P. E. I., the film traces the cooperative movement in the province back to 1864 with the founding of the Farmer’s Bank in Rustico, through the boom years for co- ops in the early part of the 20th century and a look at the future for the sector.

“It was a huge project and for us a once- in- a- lifetime opportunity to take advantage of the international year campaign to create something like this which will serve as a legacy to almost 150 years of hard work and the efforts by thousands of Islanders to grow, development, strengthen and improve coops of all types,” says Todd MacEwen, communications director for the PEICC.

“We were certainly lucky to have found a filmmaker to work with who developed a passion for the topic and had the skills to shape the story into this film.”

Summerside filmmaker Susan Rodgers of Bluemountain Entertainment shot the film at more than a dozen locations across the province during the past year, interviewing people from all areas of the cooperative sector.

“Her knowledge of the history involved complemented the stories that she was able to get from so many individuals and the overall story is not just of co- ops, but that of communities and the people who became leaders through their desire to build a better world,” says MacEwen.

“I think the documentary is unique because we have two great historians, Ed MacDonald and Georges Arsenault, who are able to put so much of the story in context and that is supplemented with some wonderful and personal stories from some of the dozen of so interview subjects.

“We had hoped to touch on as many different aspects of the co- operative movement as possible, and we do hear from people involved in the fishing and agriculture industries, the credit unions, the communities which were instrumental in finding the co- operative spirit which was so important in their growth. There are also some humorous stories and some very emotional ones too. This film tells a great Island story.”

Screenings of the film are scheduled during National Co- op Week and they include The Guild in Charlottetown on Oct. 15, Eptek Center in Summerside on Oct. 16, Ecole Evangeline on Oct. 17, the Farmer’s Bank in Rustico on Oct. 18 and the Tignish Legion on Oct. 19. All screenings begin at 7 p. m.

More information can be found by checking out www. peicc. coop.