Bringing Marmora’s forgotten history to life

By Adam Gray

Sean Scally has quickly become one of the best known documentary filmmakers in the Quinte Region. He has won the Best Local Film Award at Belleville Downtown DocFest twice, and his films are always among DocFest audience favourites. Scally has a unique gift for telling local historical stories in a compelling and accessible way. His films take obscure stories from dusty historical bookshelves and breathe new life into them. These forgotten stories and people emerge from the past onto the screen like ghosts embedding themselves in our collective memory. Scally is a man driven by passion for his art form not by profit. He loves what he does.

Ironmasters of Upper Canada, Scally’s latest documentary, tells the story of Charles Hayes’ epic battle to create and maintain Marmora’s Ironworks in the early 1800s. The film paints a vivid picture of a driven man, facing enormous odds in the brutal wilderness of Upper Canada. The audience is taken on a 200-year journey through Marmora’s history from a sparsely populated colony to the charming village it is today.

The film is based on André Philpot’s book A Species of Adventure and commissioned by the Marmora Historical Foundation for Marmora’s 200th anniversary. Scally had worked with local historian and artist Anne Philpot on a previous film Lumberbaron: The Gilmour Years, during which Anne gave him a copy of her husband André’s book and Scally fell in love with the story. “How do you not like a story that involves John A. Macdonald, Anthony Manahan, the Riel Rebellion and all that stuff?! It’s a great story that connects so much Canadian history. Everything clicked for me.

When they asked me if I would be interested in making it into a film I jumped at the chance.”

Raised in Kirkland Lake, Ont., a town with a rich history of mining, Scally’s grandfather and uncle worked in the mines. The entire mining town aspect of Marmora’s story really spoke to him. He dove deep into the research: “It’s the part of the filmmaking process I love the most. Each little discovery is a victory and gives me a feeling of satisfaction that only a historian or a detective can understand.” Hundreds, if not thousands, of hours are put into a film like Ironmasters and Scally’s obsessive interest in such topics makes the work pleasurable. “It takes 40 gallons of sap to make one gallon of maple syrup,” Scally laughs. “In the end it’s so sweet!”

In a style reminiscent of American filmmaker Ken Burns, Ironmasters uses a treasure trove of historical images and archival material intercut with an indepth interview with author/historian André Philpot, voice actors and some 15 stunning cinematography. The film was set to be screened in-person on Marmora’s 200th anniversary; unfortunately, COVID-19 restrictions foiled those plans. Eventually the Marmora Historical Foundation decided to do an online release on YouTube, their website (marmorahistory.ca), as well as a screening at DocFest 2021. Public reaction was immediate and overwhelmingly positive. “People have personal connections to these films, they know the names, they have been to the places - that makes it special,” says Scally.

“The payoff for me is when I watch the final edit of a film,” says Scally. “I have been working on it for a long time; seen it hundreds of times. If I can have a lump in my throat and a tear in my eye at the end, I know I can get that reaction from everybody else.”

Ironmasters of Upper Canada and its companion piece Moving Mountains can be viewed at seanscally.ca and his YouTube channel.