RON HARPELLE
 Ron Harpelle is the executive producer at Shebandowan Films. He teaches History at Lakehead University and has a special interest in historical documentaries. As a consequence, Shebandowan Films specializes in projects that focus on history and that contain an educational component. Ron is the producer and co-director of “Banana Split,” which won the Canadian International Development Agency’s 2004 Deborah Fletcher Award of Excellence in International Development Filmmaking. Ron also produced “The Fatal Flower,” winner of the 2003 Burrit/Thompson Award, and the “Port Arthur Amateur Cinema Society Collection” a series containing the first amateur feature-length films made in Canada. For information on this collection visit www.ladylumberjack.ca. He is currently producing and directing “Strands of Control: Barbed Wire, People and Spaces,” and producing “Dorothea Mitchell: A Reel Pioneer.” In addition to producing and directing, Ron Harpelle has a range of film credits as researcher, sound recorder, and production manager.
Although Ron has a PhD in History, he also has a background in Development Economics and has been involved with development projects in the Caribbean and Central America. He has produced several books and numerous articles on various historical subjects. His specialization is in the West Indian diaspora to Central America, but he has published in other areas. He is the author of The West Indians of Costa Rica: Race, Class and the Integration of an Ethnic Minority, and the co-editor of The Lady Lumberjack: An Annotated Collection of Dorothea Mitchell’s Writings, and Karelian Exodus: Finnish Communities in North America and Soviet Karelia during the Depression Era. He is also a contributor and the editor of Banana Stories/Histoires de Bananes, a publication made possible with the support of the International Development Research Centre and the International Network for the Improvement of Banana and Plantain.
In addition to producing films, books and articles,
Ron Harpelle has also developed a research tool to assist in the study of the
history of the West Indian diaspora in the Caribbean basin. His Electronic
Guide to the West Indian Diaspora in Middle America is used by graduate
students, armchair historians and genealogists interested in the history of
the 500,000 men, women and children who left the British West Indies between
1850 and 1950 in search of opportunities in the banana industry and the Panama
Canal. If you would like to know a bit more about this subject read Identity
in Transition: From West Indian Immigrant to Afro-Costaricense.
Another project worth checking out is an educational website devoted to Dorothea Mitchell and the Port Arthur Amateur Cinema Society. This website makes innovative use of the internet to bring silent film and one group of its creators back to life. On this website you can see how a filmstrip made in the 1970s has been annimated for the internet and you can find out how to teach the history and techniques of silent film to school children. |
