Super Bus (1969)

A school bus gets souped-up like a Canadian version of Furthur, but instead of carrying Ken Kesey and his Merry Band of Pranksters across America, here the bus transports a psychedelic rock band across Canada, a mari usque ad mare. This unnamed band plays to audiences from time to time, most notably on the beach of Vancouver’s Stanley Park. Ultimately, the bus’s destination is the Pacific Coast, where it is loaded on a freighter so it can travel the seas to Japan. The film was produced by the National Film Board of Canada for Expo ‘70 in Osaka. I’m assuming that’s where the Super Bus was destined.

Soon after its stunning transformation from a lowly school bus into its psychedelic alter-ego, Super Bus makes an appearance in Montreal, the first major city on its trans-Canadian tour.

fig. a: Saint Catherine St.

fig. b: thumbs up!

fig. c: Dorchester Blvd.

To see this crazy film for yourself, check out this link.

aj

p.s. Many thanks to Andrew Burke for alerting me (and others) to this gem.

[reconditioned hippy school buses; trans-Canadian odysseys; Dorchester Boulevard; rue Ste-Catherine]

Griffintown (1972)

Keywords: COLD!; godforsaken.

Griffintown is Part 2 of Michel Régnier’s monumental Urbanose series from 1972, examining the state of the modern city in the early 1970s, and its possible futures, with a particular focus on Montreal.

Despite its proximity to Downtown, Griffintown was an abandoned district at the time—abandoned by the city, abandoned by the greater population of Montreal, as the architect Joseph Baker puts it in the film—consisting primarily of dilapidated housing, empty lots, and small industry.

Its bleak conditions were all the more bleaker when Régnier shot the outdoor interviews for his film, on a bitterly cold winter day, not unlike today.

If Régnier found a glimmer of hope in the districts citizen’s committee and the architects and grad students who had dedicated themselves to lobbying for consultative urban renewal and quality affordable housing, he also found it in the spirit and the antics of its grade school children.

Baker, one of the film’s featured architects, died in 2016. His work in Griffintown was part of an illustrious career dedicated to community-centred architecture in Montreal and beyond.

You can watch the film in its original French version here.

aj

Blood and Fire (1958)

Blood and Fire (1958), dir. Macartney-Filgate

Though its title might lead you to think otherwise, Terence Macartney-Filgate’s Blood & Fire is a film about the workings of the Salvation Army in Montreal in the late 1950s, and especially their outreach work, the counselling and hot meals they provided, the newspaper they sold on the streets and in the taverns, their music program, the open-air ministry they ran, and the elaborate parades they were still staging at the time.

Macartney-Filgate was a pioneer of the National Film Board of Canada’s “Candid Eye” team, and Blood and Fire was one of the earliest films in the series. Among the highlights of the film are the many telephoto-lens shots of spectators and passersby looking on as the soldiers of “God’s Army” run an outdoor ministry downtown.

The film’s closing parade scene is perfect for a rainy fall day in Montreal—a day like today. Just look at the determination in their eyes. Just look at the architecture, the cars, the dress, the signage. Just look at those rain-slicked streets.

While we’re at it, we might as well take the opportunity to listen to Niney the Observer’s “Blood and Fire,” even if it is a little anachronistic.

And though the subject matter is a little far-flung, there’s something about P.J. Harvey’s “Written on the Forehead” that seems appropriate here.

[Salvation Army; open-air ministry; spectators; rainy days; financial district; centre-ville; taverns; parades]

You can find Blood & Fire here.

aj