A camera mounted on Canadian Pacific 2816 is checked by a film crew member.

28 September 2011

Dorval Filmmaker Brings Dream Alive in IMAX

Gatineau Quebec - Stephen Low's latest IMAX film travels back to his childhood penchant for trains and helps him realize his own pan-Canadian dream all the while recalling the steam era that played a critical role in shaping the country.
 
Rocky Mountain Express is a 45-minute documentary that captures the steam powered 2816 locomotive barrelling through the Rockies and other points along the rugged Canadian landscape. The locomotive, built in 1930, was used by the Canadian Pacific Railway Company to pull passengers until its final revenue run in May 1960. It was restored about 10 years ago and is now dubbed the Empress, a roving ambassador for CPR.
 
Low boasts his production, which he worked on over a five-year period, is the first full-length IMAX film in the 40-year history of this format to offer up a pan-Canadian theme. The award-winning director from Dorval said he was flabbergasted when he first heard CPR was restoring the old locomotive, thus setting the wheels in motion to make the film.
 
"I always wanted to do this film regarding the single greatest Canadian story," he said of the Canadian Pacific Railway, an 1870s dream to connect Canada with a cross-country rail line, including traversing the Precambrian shield and the Rockies.
 
"They overcame incredible difficulties, the workers. There were a lot of deaths, from blasting and avalanches. It was an enormous gamble. The railway cut off the Americans from southern British Columbia. What Canada then needed was to establish an economic, rather than a military, presence in British Columbia and the West.
 
"In the end, the thesis of the film is that those difficulties made possible the things we treasure the most in Canada, places like Banff and our national park system. It's that beauty that saved the railway, with tourism, and so on," he continued.
 
"It's kind of a well-known story, but I wanted to tell it in IMAX because when you get up in a helicopter and look down, you say, Holy cow! How could they have done that in the 1880s? So every single shot is an illustration of the courage of these (workers), in my view."
 
The film will not only appeal to train enthusiasts or history buffs, it also showcases Canada's natural wonders, Low said.
 
"It's a trip across one of the most beautiful places on earth," the director said. Audiences "will be surprised by the diversity of Western Canada. The geographical variety is incredible. It's not just a bunch of mountains."
 
The steam engine is the central character in the film.
 
"The steam engine is kind of a supernatural being that can evoke memories, that can bring history alive with its whistle and its presence," Low added. "Train buffs really want to hear from the engine. To them, the engine is a person. They want to listen to it."
 
Low has long been fascinated by trains. Growing up, he was no stranger to film since his father, Colin Low, was a distinguished documentary filmmaker.
 
Low believes he once glimpsed the 2816 in a roundhouse in the Montreal rail yards as a child when his father took him there in the late 1950s. He also once volunteered at the Canadian Railway Museum in St. Constant. In the 1970s, out of university, he worked as a brakeman on CPR freight trains.
 
Low began his film career in 1976, working as a cameraman and editor, and he directed his first giant screen film, Skyward, in 1983.
 
The filmmaker's company, which he runs with the help of marketing director Alexander Low, his brother, and producer Pietro Serapiglia, has been based in a nondescript office building on Dorval Ave. for about two decades.
 
The world premiere of Rocky Mountain Express takes place Friday at the Canadian Museum of Civilization in Gatineau, where it will open to the public the next day.
 
The film will open at the Ontario Science Centre in Toronto on Saturday, and soon after in select North American cities, no Montreal dates have yet been scheduled.
 
A FEW FILM FACTS
 
The Locomotive 2816 is a class H1b Hudson-type locomotive built by Montreal Locomotive Works in 1930.
 
The 2816, which operated at speeds of more than 70 miles an hour, logged at least 2 million miles in active service.
 
The Canadian Pacific Railway, which was completed in 1885, was a single sea-to-sea line traversing more than 4,600 kilometres.
 
Rocky Mountain Express was made using a full 15/70 negative, the world's largest film format.
 
Montrealer Michel Cusson composed the original musical score for the film.
 
Albert Kramberger.