69 minutes – Drama
Release date: April 1963
Canadian distributor: National Film Boatrd of Canada

Drylanders, shot on a budget of $218,000, was the National Film Board of Canada’s first English-language feature film. It is an epic story of the hardships faced by settlers attempting to farm the dry land of the Canadian prairies at the beginning of the 20th century. Set between 1907 and 1938, it chronicles the trials of the Greer family as they struggle to survive bitterly cold winters, scorching hot summers, unrelenting drought and the Great Depression in Saskatchewan.

The poster for Drylanders was scanned from an original in the Northernstars Collection.