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  • 2 days ago
In 1938, two young newlyweds and their good friend set off from Paris on a bold adventure: to be the first to take kayaks down America's famous whitewater river, the mighty Colorado. Setting off with film cameras, loaded with color film (before the first Hollywood colour movie), they documented their journey, which took them on a cross country road trip across the US, a 1,000 miles of a first kayak decent down the Green and Colorado, and eventually back to France, at the outbreak of World War II. For more than 75 years their story had been lost - overshadowed by the war, and forgotten - until filmmaker Ian McCluskey stumbled on an obscure roadside historic plaque. Curiosity and a call to adventure take hold, and he decides to learn how to white-water kayak to follow the path of the 'voyagers without trace'. In the process, he uncovers unexpected connections to the French Resistance, the French Riviera, and the spirit of adventure accessible to all.
Transcript
00:00Sous-titrage Société Radio-Canada
00:30I'd find a mysterious clue that set me on an adventure.
01:18This is the photograph that started my adventure.
01:21Two handsome men and a fetching blonde.
01:24They lived before I was born, yet when I stare into their faces, I feel like they could have
01:30been my friends, and that they seem to know a secret about living life.
01:36My name's Ian, by the way.
01:37I stumbled across this story by chance in a remote corner of Wyoming.
01:42The sign offered only a few facts that hinted at an incredible tale of adventure.
01:49I find an obscure library reference to the University of Utah's special collections.
01:55I pick up the phone and call.
01:57I describe the only facts I'd learned from the sign.
02:01You mean the sign on Expedition Island, says the man on the phone.
02:05I put that sign there, he says.
02:18None of them had any idea what they were getting into.
02:20They had no idea what the rapids were going to be like.
02:22They had no idea what the canyons were going to be like, how isolated it was going to be.
02:27And there was really no way out.
02:29If you had any kind of problem, you were just totally on your own.

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