A documentary capturing the beauty of Canadian landscapes

By Minh Truong

In the summer of 2019, four paddlers traversed through the Canadian last natural frontiers of Labrador. Their story did not go untold, however, as Boreal and Barrenlands – Crossing Labrador captures their expedition filled with joys, pains and lots of bugs. 

The documentary is directed by Alex Traynor and Noah Booth —  who were two of the four paddlers — and produced by Northern Scavengers. 

With the help of two DSLR cameras, a drone and a couple of action cameras, Boreal to Barrenlands stars Booth and Traynor themselves, along with David Greene and Chris Grand in a “vlogumentary” style. While it helps bring the emotional human side to the untamed nature of the voyage, the artistic style feels at times, a happy accident.

The story follows the paddlers day by day from Jul. 15 to Aug. 18, 2019 as they start their trip in Labrador City to Nain, Labrador’s northernmost permanent settlement. Traynor’s narration unveils to the audience with expositions and explanations of what’s happening on screen, albeit sometimes it does clash with the vlogging narration as they recap their first few nights. Traynor and Booth planned to release a “daily vlog” series on YouTube going through their voyage in more detail. 

When the vlogumentary works, however, it can pull an emotional weight to the story. When starting off, the DSLR footage shows how tiny the paddlers are in the overwhelming and vast nature of Labrador. Meanwhile, the action camera point-of-view shots throw the audience straight into the action. One scene shows Traynor’s canoe snapping in half while paddling through the shallow river filled with rocks. As they tried to move the canoe off the rock, their food barrels and equipment bags started to float away as Traynor’s POV looked helpless. It is devastating to witness their struggle in the barrenlands. 

Noah Booth was ahead of them and saw the gears floating down. “The first [item] I saw was my new fly rod,” said Noah during a Question and Answer session at the documentary’s premiere. “So we started to collect and successfully recovered all of our food and gears.”

The most memorable aspect of the voyage is also one of the most disgusting parts of Labrador’s wilderness: bugs. From the very first night as they set up the camps, there was a rotation of mosquitoes and black flies.

“We wake up in the morning and between 5 a.m. and 10 a.m. there would be mosquitoes, then [the mosquitoes] would rotate to black flies for the rest of the days,” said Booth.

“The bugs were constant during the trip,” said Traynor. “One night I tried to warm myself up by the flame and it engulfed my entire bug net.”

Besides the bugs, the torrential rain and brutal low temperature didn’t help either.

“It was kind of a summer trip, although it was 11 degree (fahrenheit) most of the time,” said Traynor. He also jammed his feet and numbed his toes from the cold while paddling.

Eventually, sickness got to the team and the morale became low. Booth had dysentery for a week, while Greene broke a tooth, risking an infection. The plan went from reaching Nain to just trying to make it to Mistastin Lake. 

This is where Traynor’s snarky humour towards the situation and Booth’s excited reactions bring the human side to this adventure. One magical scene, when they reach Mistastin lake involving a care package filled with beer cans, is funny and relatable as the paddlers chugged the “rewarding” drinks after a tough travel.

Using a drone for filming was Traynor’s last-minute decision, and it paid off. Every piece of footage of extreme paddling and bug fighting comes with over the head shots of beautiful sceneries. The Mistastin River watershed with the Mistastin Lake is one of Canada’s last remaining wilderness frontiers. The drone shots feel like a reward after going through the hardship. A moment ago was an angry river, then a moment after was a calm sunny paddle on the lake of Mistatin. 

Traynor said the most rewarding aspect of the trip was that he decided to film it. The pelican case carrying the gears “was close to 20lbs”, according to Traynor. Booth also added that the canoes were 80lbs each as they dragged them, along with their equipment across forests, slogs and rivers. “I was like ‘Why the hell are we doing this trip?’ There is so much rain, so many bugs, we’ve been through forests after forests,” said Traynor. “It seems like so much work and little payoff, but Mistatin was a payoff with the ocean view and the waterfalls.”

Beside the insects, the wildlife is also another special star in the documentary, as Traynor hopes to bring forth an environmental message through their expedition. The vlogumentary style shines again as the paddlers encounter caribous, black bears, seals and even whales. Every encounter is whimsical on camera, but pretty intense in real life.

“The water near the ocean was so cold that I couldn’t put my hand in there for more than 10 seconds,” said Booth. “The seals were swimming really close to us and they kept diving around the canoes.”

It took six months to plan out the expedition. “There was no information online, only a handful of [notes from] wilderness travellers who went through Labrador,” said Booth. “Planning this trip was almost as hard as going on the trip.”

He had been going to Labrador since 2014 and been blown away by its nature. “There were a lot of rivers and lakes, and the fishing was incredible”, said Booth. “Then I pitched the idea to Alex [Traynor] and he just laughed it off, but it turned out we got planning and got going.”

Asking about what they would take on their trip next time, Traynor replied “five cents gummies,” to everyone’s laughter.

Traynor and Booth premiered their documentary on February 21, 2019 in a brewery in Etobicoke. Adding to the immersion, the seats were actually foldable camping chairs. 

It was a small and cozy screening filled with laughter as well as gasps. The audience’s reaction describes my thoughts on the documentary. The combination of the simple “vlogging” method and the impressive sceneries of Labrador’s natural frontiers helps viewers connect with the four paddlers, rooting for them on their journey.

In memoriam of Dwayne Winsor, John Weaver II, John Weaver III, Matthew Weaver, Gilles Morin, James Slamon, and a fishing guide from N.L. who lost their lives in a plane crash in Mistastin Lake on Jul. 15, 2019, during the production of Boreal to Barrenlands.