A Sigh and a Wish: Helen Creighton's Maritimes

A Sigh and a Wish: Helen Creighton's Maritimes

74 mins | Jan. 1, 2001

A Sigh and a Wish tells the story of pioneer folklorist Helen Creighton and of the enduring appeal of her remarkable collections of song and story. Creighton helped define Maritime culture as we know it. Thanks to her, folk songs moved out of the kitchens and the fishing boats and into the mainstream. Top contemporary Maritime musicians - talents like Mary Jane Lamond and Lennie Gallant - describe how deeply they have been influenced by Creighton. For 60 years, Creighton sought out ghost stories, superstitions and tales of buried treasure, as well as songs handed down from generation to generation: fishing songs, work songs, love songs. Timeless songs. A Sigh and a Wish is a moving tribute to the genius of a self-taught folklorist and to the continuing strength of the deep oral traditions she helped preserve. But it also raises important questions. Does Creighton's collection truly reflect Maritime culture, or is it tinged by her own upper-middle-class assumptions?

A Sigh and a Wish: Helen Creighton's Maritimes

74 mins | Jan. 1, 2001

A Sigh and a Wish: Helen Creighton's Maritimes
A Sigh and a Wish tells the story of pioneer folklorist Helen Creighton and of the enduring appeal of her remarkable collections of song and story. Creighton helped define Maritime culture as we know it. Thanks to her, folk songs moved out of the kitchens and the fishing boats and into the mainstream. Top contemporary Maritime musicians - talents like Mary Jane Lamond and Lennie Gallant - describe how deeply they have been influenced by Creighton. For 60 years, Creighton sought out ghost stories, superstitions and tales of buried treasure, as well as songs handed down from generation to generation: fishing songs, work songs, love songs. Timeless songs. A Sigh and a Wish is a moving tribute to the genius of a self-taught folklorist and to the continuing strength of the deep oral traditions she helped preserve. But it also raises important questions. Does Creighton's collection truly reflect Maritime culture, or is it tinged by her own upper-middle-class assumptions?
Producers National Film Board of Canada
Original title A Sigh and a Wish: Helen Creighton's Maritimes
Directors Donna Davies
Writers Donna Davies

Cast

Odile Boyd

as Himself

Clary Croft

as Himself

Teresa Doyle

as Herself

Lennie Gallant

as Himself

Mary Jane Lamond

as Herself

Ashley MacIsaac

as Narrator

Rod C. MacNeil

as Himself

Catherine Martin

as Herself

Raylene Rankin

as Herself

Pete Seeger

as Himself