This looks interesting, but if I can’t get it at the library or netflix,
I can’t see it.
GL
Robert, it is free on the auteurs (but perhaps only for some regions?).
Hi. It should be viewable everywhere, but it’s only free for a limited time. And something I realized only recently is that you can watch The Auteurs films with relatively slow internet connections by pre-loading them (click on play and then pause and it will keep on loading) and then coming back after a while. Worth a try if that’s the issue.
An intriguing and unique film. Thanks Clive and The Auteurs for having it on here for viewing. If this were a film festival I would most definitely be enthusiastically clapping. The use of mixed media was fascinating and the pacing of the film was well-done. My favourite parts were the three successive sections in the middle that begin with Hitler! and discuss false dichotomies. But I do think that omnibus/collective films should never be deconstructed in such a manner anyway on to the questions.
What inspired you to make this film in this manner? Did you write the poems before deciding to make the film? The film stands out as a reflective and contemplative look at a city, almost like a city symphony, yet dwelves into a much more personal space. So yeah… What inspired you to make this film in this manner?
Also, as this film was made in 2004, what do you feel about this project 5 years later? How alike was the resulting film to your initial vision.
Once again, thanks for sharing and I hope more see this film (Also, it has a very unjustified rating on IMDB).
Hi and thanks for the kind words.
Q – What inspired you to make this film in this manner?
A – It actually came to me in a flash one day. I was sitting on a bench in downtown Winnipeg, listening to a long freight train crossing a trestle. The title popped into my head, and then the film, and the project around it, sort of unfolded in front of me. Then I just had to spend five years putting the pieces together, in a sense.
Q – Did you write the poems before deciding to make the film?
A – The order was a mix, with some films the poem came first, with others it was filming that started the process. But over-all they were part of a whole, seamless project, from beginning to end. I mean, they don’t feel separate to me. (In case you don’t know it, the Trains of Winnipeg project spanned 2001 thru 2006, with much of it available for free here: www.trainsofwinnipeg.com).
Q – The film stands out as a reflective and contemplative look at a city, almost like a city symphony, yet dwelves into a much more personal space.
A- I love the comparison to the city symphony sub-genre. Thanks for that. I think it also overlaps with the ‘diary film’ experimental genre, thus the ‘personal space’.
Q – Also, as this film was made in 2004, what do you feel about this project 5 years later?
A – In the last few years I’ve really plugged myself into my current project, Utopia Suite (which I plan to work on until the year 2020). But with now I’m loving this excuse to re-visit ‘ToW’. There are a few things I’d do differently (of course, if you’re progressing then this is normal – but this is hard to be objective about because some of my interests have evolved since then). I’m very process-oriented in my work, and so I’m very happy to look back at this effort because I feel that I followed the process in an honest and clear way, a way that resulted in a unique work in some ways (at least that’s what I was attempting).
Q – How alike was the resulting film to your initial vision.
A – You have to follow the work and let it assert itself in-the-making, and this is especially true with experimental/avant garde/hand made filmmaking, but I FEEL as though the beginning vision and the results were very similar.
Q – Once again, thanks for sharing and I hope more see this film (Also, it has a very unjustified rating on IMDB).
A – You’re welcome! (And as for those ratings, they go with the territory, and I’ve also benefited form ‘star’ ratings – to make art it helps to have a good sense of humor, a thick hide, and a lot of stubbornness helps too.)
Thanks for your interesting questions.
Thank you for the extensive response.
Anyone else? It is definitely worth the 90 minutes…
No problem. Don’t know how much depth you want to go into, but if you’re really keen:
I did quite a long interview recently with Scott (“Critical Cinema”) MacDonald which is in his new book, “Adventures of Perception – Cinema as Exploration” (UCPress, http://www.ucpress.edu/books/pages/11304.php ). It also includes an essay on Trains of Winnipeg along with films by Rick Hancox and Matthias Müller. Plus interview chapters with Gina Kim, Claude Nuridsany & Marie Pérennou (Microcosmos), David Gatten, and Karen Cooper.
Also just published: “Place – 13 Essays 13 Filmmakers 1 City” (ed. Cecilia Araneda, Winnipeg Film Group: http://www.winnipegfilmgroup.com/place.aspx ), with an essay chapter by Larissa Fan about both Trains of Winnipeg and Utopia Suite. Plus essays on Winnipeg directors Norma Bailey, Jeffrey Erbach, Sean Garrity, Noam Gonick, Greg Hanec, Paula Kelly, John Kozak, Guy Maddin, Winston Washington Moxam, John Paizs, Jeff Solylo, and Caelum Vatnsdal.
I’ve been meaning to get a hold of this for a while. I have a bit of a crush on Mr. Samson.
I suppose my question would be… have you ever thought about using Greg Macpherson as a musical contributor to any of your work?
Re. Mr. Samson: who doesn’t?
Re. Greg: what an amazing talent. I’d love to work with him. For some reason I bump into him on the sidewalk every six months or so. Maybe I’m meant to ask him.
**For those who don’t know: John (The Weakerthans) Samson was one of my musical collaborators on the Trains of Winnipeg CD, and therefore on several of the film’s soundtracks.
Macpherson DOES have plenty of songs he has not released yet. ….so pissed.
anywho, I’ll watch this today and comment scholarly.
Just watched the film. I haven’t seen much cinema like this before, but I suppose thats because a film like this would be hard to come by.
Anyway I loved it, the way the repeating images and sound put me into a hypnotic state. I kept phasing in and out of attention, each image or word sending me down a path of an old memory or strange idea. It was a really interesting experience.
I’m a big fan of ambient music. In a way the film seemed to me almost like qualities of ambient music put to film. Of course there was the sound design and music too. How did you approach creating the sound and music for each poem?
Hi Kyle,
Glad you enjoyed the film!
I think the music analogy is a really good one (something I definitely had in mind while making the film). I think of this kind of work as a kind of ‘visual music’, where watching it can FEEL like listening to music.
But to extend that a little further: I think, like some of the best music, that films of this kind benefit from repeated viewings. If you think about it, because film history’s been so dominated by theatrical presentation, we still (habitually) place a lot of emphasis on the ‘single view’. Now that we have growing film libraries at home, and via The Auteurs, this model seems increasingly out-moded. It’s time to place more demand on films, and in return to be willing to give them more than one try (again, as we’re long accustomed to with music).
And I really like the ‘phasing in and out’ comment. I was at a sound art festival once where Christophe Charles encouraged the audience to talk during his (amazing) performance, if they felt like it (no one took him up on it)! He was trying to encourage an alternative approach to his work. I was hoping that this film would work in ‘art cinema’ culture (in a single, theatrical viewing with at least some ‘narrative thrust’, thus the train journey idea — but also to allow for the contemplative space that I think you’re describing (which is part of going on a long train trip).
Each film the soundtrack’s were created in interesting collaborations with the composers (Jason Tait, Christine Fellows, and Emily Goodden). The orders were different in each case, and we worked in living rooms, sound studios, band rehearsal spaces (above a pool hall), and I walked around a lot pointing my microphone at trains. The main exception is the soundtrack for ‘Hitler! (Revisited)’, by sound artist Steve Bates, where we created both works largely independently, and then they came together almost as if my magic.
To-date, it has been very hard to distribute this genre of work, which is why I’m excited to be included in The Auteurs. Trains of Winnipeg screened at some general festivals (like Rotterdam), and then it mostly toured around playing at festivals (and cinematheques and galleries) that specialize in experimental/avant garde film, or at media art festivals, a sound art festival, a literature festival, and at several innovative documentary events. It’s had good quality distribution since then to exhibtors (via the CFMDC.org and EMAF.de), BUT arranging for DVD publication was very frustrating. And now… I think this outcome is MUCH better in the long run, and I hope this will happen for many more works from this part of the film world.
Here’s a sampling of works from my end of the film world that are currently listed on The Auteurs (but not yet playable):
WAVELENGTH, Michael Snow: http://www.theauteurs.com/films/2085
NOSTALGIA, Hollis Frampton: http://www.theauteurs.com/films/2531
DE MOUVEMENT, Richard Kerr: http://www.theauteurs.com/films/20297
TAMALPAIS, Chris Kennedy: http://www.theauteurs.com/films/4091
ALL FALL DOWN, Philip Hoffman: http://www.theauteurs.com/films/20485
MOTHLIGHT, Stan Brakhage:http://www.theauteurs.com/films/3894
THE HEART OF THE WORLD, Guy Maddin: http://www.theauteurs.com/films/2969
RR, James Benning: http://www.theauteurs.com/films/100
ONE WAY BOOGIE WOOGIE, James Benning: http://www.theauteurs.com/films/3116
LANDSCAPE SUICIDE, James Benning: http://www.theauteurs.com/films/21407
SCORPIO RISING, Kenneth Anger: http://www.theauteurs.com/films/3724
Hi Kyle,
Glad you enjoyed the film!
I think the music analogy is a really good one (something I definitely had in mind while making the film). I think of this kind of work as a form of ‘visual music’, where watching it can FEEL like listening to music.
But to extend that a little further: I think, like some of the best music, that films of this kind benefit from repeated viewings. If you think about it, because film history’s been so dominated by theatrical presentation, we still (habitually) place a lot of emphasis on the ‘single view’. Now that we have growing film libraries at home, and via The Auteurs, this model seems increasingly out-moded. It’s time to place more demand on films, and in return to be willing to give them more than one try (again, as we’re long accustomed to with music).
And I really like the ‘phasing in and out’ comment. I was at a sound art festival once where Christophe Charles encouraged the audience to talk during his (amazing) performance, if they felt like it (no one took him up on it)! He was trying to encourage an alternative approach to his work. I was hoping that this film would work in ‘art cinema’ culture (in a single, theatrical viewing with at least some ‘narrative thrust’, thus the train journey idea — but also to allow for the contemplative space that I think you’re describing (which is part of going on a long train trip).
In each film the soundtracks were created in interesting collaborations with the composers (Jason Tait, Christine Fellows, and Emily Goodden). The orders were different in each case, and we worked in living rooms, sound studios, band rehearsal spaces (above a pool hall), and I walked around a lot pointing my microphone at trains. The main exception is the soundtrack for ‘Hitler! (Revisited)’, by sound artist Steve Bates, where we created both works largely independently, and then they came together almost as if my magic.
To-date, it has been very hard to distribute this genre of work, which is why I’m excited to be included in The Auteurs. Trains of Winnipeg screened at some general festivals (like Rotterdam), and then it mostly toured around playing at festivals (and cinematheques and galleries) that specialize in experimental/avant garde film, or at media art festivals, a sound art festival, a literature festival, and at several innovative documentary events. It’s had good quality distribution since then to exhibtors (via the CFMDC.org and EMAF.de), BUT arranging for DVD publication was very frustrating. And now… I think this outcome is MUCH better in the long run, and I hope this will happen for many more works from this part of the film world.
Here’s a sampling of titles from my end of filmland that are currently listed on The Auteurs (but not yet playable):
WAVELENGTH, Michael Snow: http://www.theauteurs.com/films/2085
NOSTALGIA, Hollis Frampton: http://www.theauteurs.com/films/2531
DE MOUVEMENT, Richard Kerr: http://www.theauteurs.com/films/20297
TAMALPAIS, Chris Kennedy: http://www.theauteurs.com/films/4091
ALL FALL DOWN, Philip Hoffman: http://www.theauteurs.com/films/20485
MOTHLIGHT, Stan Brakhage:http://www.theauteurs.com/films/3894
THE HEART OF THE WORLD, Guy Maddin: http://www.theauteurs.com/films/2969
RR, James Benning: http://www.theauteurs.com/films/100
ONE WAY BOOGIE WOOGIE, James Benning: http://www.theauteurs.com/films/3116
LANDSCAPE SUICIDE, James Benning: http://www.theauteurs.com/films/21407
SCORPIO RISING, Kenneth Anger: http://www.theauteurs.com/films/3724
Sorry for double posts. Not sure what happened.
Kyle, I quoted you via Twitter today. Hope you don’t mind.
Thats fine Clive, I actually just did the same and posted a blog about you, the film, and The Auteurs. Hope you don’t mind as well.
Another observation about the film. I’m a fan of the band Godspeed You! Black Emperor and when watching Trains of Winnipeg I couldn’t shake the bands music from my mind. To me the films eerie atmosphere and obscured images reminded me of their music’s mood and structure. Are you influenced by their music in any way?
I can imagine distributing a film like this would be difficult. Seems like its home are websites like this and festivals. I had a film professor who loved avant-garde and experimental films. He screened a couple of his non-narrative films for us, that’s were I was first exposed to anything like this. Most of the other students didn’t seem to care or take it seriously.
I posted a blogpost on your film too. Good luck with the distribution!
Thanks very much for this:
Kyle’s blog: http://www.asliceofmind.com; & LAW’s: http://nouvellesvague.tumblr.com.
Re. Godspeed You! Black Emperor: I learned about them just after I’d made the film, and it’s a flattering connection (and maybe the best band name ever). And I did perform work from this project once in their cafe-club in Montreal.
I love many dramatic narrative films too (see my TA list), but there’s no question that there’s an exciting wave of non-narrative films coming into view now. Until recently, it’s been a more-or-less hidden part of cinematic history. Works you see in college and certain festivals and never again. And it’s all changing now.
To be completely clear about the distro challenges: with the film’s inclusion here, I couldn’t be happier about how it’s turned out (but thanks for the good luck, it’s always useful).
And you jogged my memory. From a review of the Trains of Winnipeg CD:
Joey Sweeney, Philadelphia Weekly: “Top 5 of the Moment – With a musical backing that splits the difference between that sort of Godspeed You! Black Emperor pensiveness and a more propulsive indie inspiration, Holden’s poems are laid out in a great old fogy/young man voice that’ll go down especially well with fans of the blowing plastic bag scene in American Beauty. Trains of Winnipeg is that kind of party.”
A round table discussion about Trains of Winnipeg + The Auteurs has begun today in Garage: http://www.theauteurs.com/topics/6664
cliveholden
I’m just saying: if anyone has questions about the film, I’ll be happy to answer them here. (-Clive)