WINNER - GEMINI AWARD FOR BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN 1998

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Director: Eric Till

Producers; CBC, Andrew Cochran.

 

Pit Pony is based on Joyce Barkhouse’s historical children’s novel by the same name. Set in the 1910 coal mining community of Glace Bay, Cape Breton, it centres on 10 year old Willie McClean, who due to tragic family circumstances is required to work deep in the coal mines that run for miles out and under the Atlantic Ocean. In the mines he develops a close relationship with Gem, one of the many wild Sable Island ponies brought to work in the mines because of their strength and small stature.

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Veteran Director Eric Till took a sensitive but unsentimental approach for the film, portraying it as an unrelentingly tough situation. He, DOP Nick Evdemon and myself collaborated intently to realize this vision.

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