Large-scale hydroelectric developments have been closely tied to both state-sponsored modernization agendas and nation-building since the twentieth century. This article examines the production of “hydro-imaginaries” about hydroelectricity in Power in Perpetuity: The Churchill Falls Project (Sally MacDonald, 1967), produced by Crawley Films for the Churchill Falls Labrador Corporation. Power in Perpetuity is one of three Crawley productions documenting the construction of the Churchill Falls Hydroelectric Station in central Labrador, Canada between 1967 and 1972. Using film analysis and archival research on the film’s production and circulation, I examine how Power in Perpetuity represents cheap, abundant hydroelectricity as a provincial and national resource, a foundation for modern life, and a fuel for sustaining southern, settler futures. By analyzing cinematic representations of Churchill Falls, this article contributes to scholarly examinations of the Crawley Films archive, filmic representations of the environmental injustices of modernization, and visual histories of energy in Canada.
Rachel Webb Jekanowski (Sat,) studied this question.