By Their Own Strength

Directed by Evelyn Spice Cherry

Canada, 1940 (documentary / fiction, 33 minutes, black and white)

Film Description:
"The film traces the history of wheat farming in the Canadian West and how, through co-operative action and the formation of wheat pools, farmers have united to improve their lot and stabilize prices."
-- Library and Archives Canada (source)

Film Description [in French] :
"Une histoire des cultivateurs de blé de l'Ouest de 1906 à 1939."
-- Jana Vosikovska (source)

Film Credits (partial):
Written by:	Evelyn Cherry
Produced by:	Lawrence Cherry, Evelyn Cherry
Cinematography:	Lawrence Cherry
Film Editing:	Evelyn Cherry
Production Company:	Saskatchewan Wheat Pool

(sources)

Notes about By Their Own Strength

Silent film with English intertitles.

(sources)

Quotes about By Their Own Strength

"Using a dramatized documentary approach, By Their Own Strength depicts the farmers' protests against being exploited by the grain buyers and middlemen. It also conveys the growth of the co-operative movement on the Prairies from the turn of the century through to the establishment of the early Grain Growers' Grain Company and the development of the Saskatchewan Wheat Pool. Despite a rather excessive use of titles to convey information, this is a powerful film [...]."
-- Peter Morris (source)

"By Their Own Strength (1940) is remarkable in the way it depicts class conflict in a bold, agit-prop montage style, foregrounding the contributions of working people to larger social and economic systems."
-- Christine Ramsay (source)