My Winnipeg

Colour, 35 mm
Canada, 2007, 97 min
Section: Another View

Synopsis

Always winter. Always winter. Always sleeping. Winnipeg. Canadian director Guy Maddin blurs the border between the documentary and subjective fiction film, here basing his work - like his Brand Upon the Brain! – on his personal mythology, but this time in a documentary portrait of his hometown. Maddin captures the specific qualities of his native city with enchantment as well as indignation – the latter when dealing with the demolition of historical landmarks; using shaky images made with a digital camera, he violates his own precise style inspired by impressionist aesthetics and even “B-movie” melodramas. The location of Winnipeg, deep in the Canadian interior, projects itself in the many sleepwalkers and the city’s elimination from the NHL. Maddin has no use for reassuring picture-postcard shots to accentuate the city’s exceptional features. His reveries of the past are more of a wake-up call, and are enticing only until the moment of bitter discovery that much of what enchants us in the film is already a thing of the past.

About the director

Guy Maddin (b. 1956, Winnipeg, Canada) is one of today’s most distinctive filmmakers. In addition to directing feature films and shorts, he is also a teacher and a contributor to film periodicals. Karlovy Vary audiences had the opportunity to see his vibrant television ballet Dracula: Pages from a Virgin’s Diary (2002) and The Saddest Music in the World (2003), which launched the director’s collaboration with actress Isabella Rossellini. He also made a short film with Rossellini about her father, director Roberto Rossellini, called My Dad Is 100 Years Old (2005), as well as the feature film Brand Upon the Brain! (2006). My Winnipeg is Maddin’s first documentary production.