Between The Rock and a Hard Place

For generations Newfoundlanders have been leaving The Rock to find work. The necessity has almost become a tradition, even a right of passage. With the collapse of the cod fishery and the province’s economic decline, this migration has taken on new meaning. Where have many Newfoundlanders gone? To northern communities scattered across Canada like the tough little town of Fort Nelson, British Columbia.

The 44-minute documentary film Between the Rock and a Hard Place, finds these displaced Newfoundlanders adapting well to jobs in the resource industries of gas and timber in Fort Nelson, B.C. Theirs is a bitter-sweet lot, however, as money can never quite mute the yearning for a return to The Rock. They miss the smell of the salt air, the ocean, and the familiarity of their culturally distinct communities. Traveling to Newfoundland we visit the beautiful but vacated communities, friends and relatives they have left behind. We learn that theirs is also a tragically ironic situation. Exhausting one resource, these economic migrants are compelled to participate in the exploitation of yet another resource.

Between the Rock and a Hard Place, is not only a fascinating story about human survival and the Newfoundlanders often humorous influence on the town of Fort Nelson, but also asks us all to reflect on how we choose to manage our resources and how these choices effect the communities that depend on them.

Between the Rock and a Hard Place has been broadcast on CBC Newsworld Rough Cuts, CBC Newfoundland, Knowledge Network and Saskatchewan Communications Network.

Produced by Jim Hamm Productions Ltd., in association with CBC Newsworld, Canadian Television Fund: Licence Fee Program, British Columbia Film and Rogers Documentary Fund.

For further information and Video/DVD sales contact:
Jim Hamm Productions Ltd.
P.O. Box 211, Bowser, B.C. V0R 1G0, Canada
(778) 424-1110
jim.hamm@shaw.ca
www.jimhammproductions.com

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Key Credits:
Producer & Director - Jim Hamm
Writers - Pj Reece, Jim Hamm, and Peter Von Puttkamer
Camera - Peter Von Puttkamer
Editor - Peter Von Puttkamer
Narrator - Robert Nasmith
For CBC Newsworld - Jerry McIntosh and Don Richardson
Produced by Jim Hamm Productions Ltd., in Association with CBC Newsworld