The Huntsman
1972 · 16m · Canada
Directed by Douglas Jackson
Genres: coming-of-age, drama, family
A ten-year-old boy earns money by retrieving stray golf balls from the rough and reselling them to golfers, until two older, unscrupulous boys try to take over his turf.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
Golf ball hustle as coming-of-age? It's almost too quaint to work, but Jackson's refusal to sentimentalize the kid's entrepreneurial scrappiness or the older boys' cruelty keeps it from becoming the CBC family special everyone expects—there's a genuinely unsettling edge lurking under the whimsy.
A formally assured 16 minutes that understands the grammar of mid-century NFB realism, situating playground capitalism within a lineage of films about childhood labor and territorial struggle; Jackson's compositional choices and rhythmic editing elevate what could be a sketch into something architecturally complete.
The entire film hinges on the decision to shoot the boys in naturalistic, unglamorous long shots during their territorial confrontation—no close-ups, no indie-film intensity—which makes the threat feel genuinely ambient and lets the landscape itself become the antagonist; it's a restraint that costs nothing and earns everything.