Hatley Poet Angela Leuck and Louise Abbott of Rural Route Communications have collaborated on a new book--an anthology of work by contemporary women poets of the Eastern Townships of Quebec. The Townshippers' Research and Cultural Foundation as well as the municipality of Canton de Stanstead and the MRC de Memphrémagog have all contributed funding for this exciting project, which is the first of its kind. Louise has created portraits of the poets for the book and also created video poems with several of the poets. The anthology will be published by Studio Georgeville and launched in late April of 2021.

Bernice Sorge  (Photo: Louise Abbott)

 Crow is a video poem produced by Louise Abbott in collaboration with Bernice Sorge:

https://vimeo.com/443211288

Poet Tanya Bellehumeur-Allatt   (Photo: Louise Abbott)

Baste the Raw Edges, Fasten the Yoke is a video poem produced by Louise Abbott in collaboration with Tanya Bellehumeur-Allatt :

https://vimeo.com/438405347/a19335d4d9

During the coronavirus pandemic, one rural student in the Eastern Townships of Quebec made his high school graduation memorable by the ride he took to the outdoor ceremony in Magog.  Louise Abbott produced a short video titled Riding to Graduation to commemorate the event:

https://vimeo.com/434151227

In the course of work on a documentary called Spring Fever about life on family farms during the coronavirus pandemic, Louise Abbott and Niels Jensen spent a morning shooting footage at a Townships dairy farm. Louise then made this short observational video.

In the Morning Light

https://vimeo.com/423827951

Rural Route Communications is pleased to announce that Louise Abbott was chosen as one of five Canadian filmmakers for the Tell Our Stories project of Friends of Canadian Broadcasting. Her mini documentary The Ahiarmiut: Out-of-the-Way Dwellers is now online:

https://youtu.be/7zZKKS_ByBo

Our thanks to all those who contributed to the film and to Friends of Canadian Broadcasting for co-producing it.

Friends of Canadian Broadcasting launched Tell Our Stories out of concern that Canadian stories are in danger of disappearing as Canadian newspapers and broadcasters shut down operations, and more and more people turn to online services like Netflix and Disney+, where Canadian stories are few and far between.

Friends commissioned the five documentaries "to show that there are thousands more Canadian stories out there just waiting to be told."

To learn more about Tell Our Stories and the five filmmakers:

https://tellourstories.ca/