In his 1996 book Fire in the Bones, James Raffan takes up the story of Bill Mason. He takes you on a journey into the landscapes that fed his imagination and nurtured his faith.
The title is taken from the a text found in the Old Testament book of Jeremiah (20:9) “His word was in my heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones, I was weary with forbearing, and I could not stay.”
Raffan tells the story of Bill Mason in a candid and engaging style. I offer here a brief snippet from the book which speaks of the involvement of Wilber Sutherland and Imago in bringing the film Waterwalker to completion.
“…in early 1983, still hanging onto the dream of getting out of film and painting full-time, that Bill understood that to break the stalemate and finish the sixth canoeing film he would have to leave the Film Board and try to finish it privately. And it was at that point, just as he had done under the pines at Manitoba Pioneer Camp twenty-five years before, with Wilderness Treasure, that Wilber Sutherland, a third character in the Waterwalker supporting cast to have grown up in a Plymouth Brethren household, arrived on the scene
to help steer Waterwalker to completion.
While Mason negotiated his early retirement from the Board, Sutherland dickered with the Film Board and secured a deal in which Imago and the Board undertook coproduction of Waterwalker. Had it not been
for Sutherland coming on the scene at precisely that moment coming to the rescue of Bill and his precious last film, Waterwalker would have faded into obscurity.” (p.246)
“…urged on by Alan Whatmough, Sutherland got in touch with singer Bruce Cockburn, who liked the idea of working on a Bill Mason film, and eventually teamed up with musician Hugh Marsh to compose and record the musical score for Waterwalker.” (p.248)