What Happened to Pine Point

 One of my favorite sites we looked at in class this year was Welcome to Pine Point provided by the National Film Board of Canada. This is an unusual way of storytelling, but it really grabbed my attention. It’s movies, photos, graphics, information, and interviews brought together to create a memory of this town that has long been forgotten by its surroundings.

This was the first Web site I’d seen like this, something so eclectic I couldn’t get it out of my mind. It tells the story of Pine Point, a city in Canada that no longer exists. The narrator opens the story up, talking about the town he remembered once, and when he returned to see what had happened to it, he learned it was no more.

The site brilliantly uses graphics and sound that puts the viewer back in the time when Pine Point was a thriving industrial city centered around the local mine. The pictures are worn and yellowed as the 70s usually was for people. The music and noises give a vague perception of what it was like back then. Combined with the old movies and photos acquired, this site creates a real nostalgia for a place that is no more.

 The site does require time, and may not be something people are going to stay with if they are on a time crunch, but if the viewer wants to see a new and innovative form of storytelling, there is nothing not to like about this site. You do have to go along with the way the creators have laid out the story, but this isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

Being taken by the hand through this site is kind of nice because it really allows the story to engulf you. Perhaps, this is just my style of storytelling, but you can’t say that this site doesn’t create a haunting feeling of loss of a town that was never known.