Tragedy on the Ottawa River!!!
Rob Faubert
Monday 8 February 1999
Outdoor filmmaker drowns
kayaking
Frantic efforts fail to free award-winning
artist trapped under ice
Jake Rupert
The Ottawa Citizen
An award-winning outdoor adventure
filmmaker from the Ottawa Valley died
yesterday doing what she loved to do.
Lynn Clark, 35, of Foresters Falls, about 100
kilometres west of Ottawa, was in a kayak on
an open stretch of rapids on the Ottawa River
in Westmeath Township near Beachburg at 3
p.m. She was getting ready to film two other
kayakers when her vessel overturned.
Ms. Clark floated out of her kayak and the
swift current took her down the rapids, then
under the ice at the bottom of the run.
The two other kayakers got help, and, for 40
minutes, several people with ice picks, an axe
and a chainsaw frantically searched for her
under the ice.
When she was found, she was rushed by ambulance to
Pembroke
General Hospital, but could not be revived.
Ms. Clark began making films in the mid-1980s and
quickly made a
name for herself. She is best known for her films of
people
rock-climbing, bungee-jumping and, particularly,
kayaking, all of which
were made in her home studio, Greenhouse Productions.
In 1995, her documentary Drowning Horses: An
Alternative Rodeo,
beat more than 80 films to win the People's Choice
Award at the 1995
Waterwalker Film Festival, held in the Ottawa area.
In 1994, I Really Wanna Know, a 31Ú2-minute movie
about
whitewater rafting shot on the Ottawa River near her
home, won a
special jury prize at the Banff International
Festival of Mountain Films. It
took one of only seven prizes awarded at the
festival, which featured
more than 300 films.
Ms. Clark's main 1996 project, Kayaks and Coconuts, a
breathtaking
account of kayaking adventures from Ottawa to South
America and
back, was one of 25 works chosen from 180 entries in
the Banff
International Festival of Mountain Films for The Best
of Banff collection
that year.
Her winning film toured internationally, with 700
screenings worldwide.
News of her death swept through the area's diving
community yesterday.
"She started out on the Ottawa River, and her
filmmaking took her all
around the world," said Peter Nor, 28, of Ottawa.
"But she always came back home. She was really a
pivotal member of
our community. She'll be missed by a lot of people."
"She was a true artist," said Mark Scriver, 37, also
of Ottawa. "She had
an eye and a talent that made her films reach
everybody."
Both said it is not unusual for kayakers to paddle
rapids in the winter.
Ms. Clark had done so many times before.
While adventure films were Ms. Clark's passion, they
weren't her bread
and butter. She worked primarily on promotion and
instruction videos
for outdoor training facilities and local companies
such as Arnprior's
Boeing operation. Her work has also been featured on
the Women's
Television Network.
An autopsy will be performed today. Police are
treating her death as
accidental. No one else was injured.
bag...@pop.uky.edu
Rob Faubert <faub...@ajja.com> wrote:
> LOCAL NEWS
>
> Monday 8 February 1999
>
> Outdoor filmmaker drowns
> kayaking
>
> Frantic efforts fail to free award-winning
> artist trapped under ice
>
>
This message is on behalf of the 1999 National Paddling Film Festival (NPFF)
volunteer committee. We wish to acknowledge that Lynn Clark,the Canadian
paddler who recently lost her life on the Ottawa River, was a gifted film
maker who had contributed significantly over the past few years to the
National Paddling Film Festival.
She submitted and had accepted her most recent work "Significant Consequences:
The Image of Paddling From Both Sides of the Lens" for the 1999 NPFF
competition. The synopsis Lynn wrote of this film, which is to be included in
the 99NPFF program, now unfortunately, bears an even greater meaning with news
of her death. She wrote:
"A gripping editorial/documentary that looks at whitewater paddling in
1998,the increased deaths of paddlers, river accidents and the documentation
of this. Includes a spellbinding segment of a near death experience of a
kayaker in Western Quebec. The video is ment to be both enlightening and
thought provoking. The tone is sincere and quite somber."
In entering "Significant Consequences" Lynn was continuing her long and
generous relationship with the National Paddling Film Festival. By donating
her talented work to be shown in the competitions, Lynn succeded in providing
the NPFF audiences and other viewers of her videos an insightful paddler's
perspective of our sport, and directly enabled the NPFF to generate much
needed conservation funds towards the preservation of the rivers and
waterways we all love.
Some of the other informative, innovative and entertaining entries Lynn, and
her company, Greenhouse Productions have contributed to the NPFF competitions
over the past nine years include:
1998 "Dancing With The River"
1997 "Kayaks and Coconuts: A Paddling Odyssey in Honduras and Guatemala"
1995 Ottawa Dragon Boat Festival
1995 Underwhelmed
1994 Hymn of the Big Wheel
1992 Whitewater Baptism
1992 White Magic
1991 Just a Step to the Left
1991 Current Events
Lynn was an artist of great depth and considerable talent who will be dearly
missed by those of us serving with the NPFF. The film committee has
unanimously agreed that the 1999 National Paddling Film Festival shall be
celebrated and dedicated in honor of her memory.
<+>:<+>:<+>:<+>:<+>:<+>:<+>:<+>:<+>:<+>:<+>:<+>
Barry Grimes
1999 NPFF Coordinator
American Whitewater director
bag...@pop.uky.edu
http://www.surfbwa.org/npff
http://www.awa.org
<+>:<+>:<+>:<+>:<+>:<+>:<+>:<+>:<+>:<+>:<+>:<+>
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