Fields of Endless Day

Fields of Endless Day
Directed byTerence Macartney-Filgate
Written byFrederick Ward
William Whitehead
Produced byTerence Macartney-Filgate
Beryl Fox
CinematographyDennis Miller
Ron Watts
Edited byDon Haig
Music byOscar Peterson
Production
company
Release date
  • October 18, 1978 (1978-10-18)
Running time
60 minutes
CountryCanada
LanguageEnglish

Fields of Endless Day is a 1978 Canadian docudrama film, directed by Terence Macartney-Filgate.[1] The film dramatizes various vignettes from Black Canadian history, from the early settlement of New France in the 1600s through to the early 1930s.[2][3]

Stories depicted in the film include those of Mathieu da Costa, the first known free black person in Canada; Marie-Joseph Angélique, a slave who was controversially convicted and executed for purportedly burning down her master's house in 1734; the abolition of slavery in Upper Canada by John Graves Simcoe in 1793; the settling of Salt Spring Island by Black Canadians in the 1850s; and the story of cowboy and rancher John Ware.[2]

Produced by the National Film Board of Canada, the film was distributed as a CBC Television broadcast on October 18, 1978.[1]

The film received a Canadian Film Award nomination for Best Feature Length Documentary at the 29th Canadian Film Awards in 1978.[4]

  1. ^ a b Donn Downey, "Docu-drama on blacks doesn't go far enough". The Globe and Mail, October 19, 1978.
  2. ^ a b "Fields of Endless Day". Montreal Gazette, October 14, 1978.
  3. ^ "Fields of Endless Day". screenculture.org. CESIF. Retrieved 5 February 2023.
  4. ^ Jay Scott, "Four films nominated for Etrogs". The Globe and Mail, August 24, 1978.