Donald Shebib's 'Goin' Down the Road'

150 Pages·2012·1.1 MB·English

by  Geoff Pevere

DONALD SHEBIB’S
GOIN’ DOWN THE ROAD
Since its release in July 1970, Donald Shebib’s low-budget road movie
about displaced Maritimers in Toronto has become one of the most
celebrated Canadian movies ever made. In this study of Goin’ Down the
Road, renowned film critic Geoff Pevere provides an engaging account
of how a film produced under largely improvised circumstances be-
came the most influential Canadian movie of its day as well as an en-
during cultural touchstone.
Featuring extensive interviews with the film’s key participants, Pe-
vere provides behind-the-scenes history and explores how the movie’s
meaning and interpretation have changed over time. He gives special
attention to the question of why the film’s creative mix of documenta-
ry techniques, road movie tropes, and social commentary have proven
so popular and influential in Canadian filmmaking for decades.
(Canadian Cinema)
geoff pevere has been writing, broadcasting, and teaching about film
and media for more than thirty years. He is the former movie critic for
the Toronto Star, co-author of the national best-seller Mondo Canuck, and
host of CBC Radio’s groundbreaking culture program Prime Time.
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CANADIAN CINEMA 8
DONALD SHEBIB’S
GOIN’ DOWN THE ROAD
GEOFF PEVERE
UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO PRESS
Toronto Buffalo London
© University of Toronto Press 2012
Toronto Buffalo London
www.utppublishing.com
Printed in Canada
isbn 978-1-4426-4589-9 (cloth)
isbn 978-1-4426-1410-9 (paper)
Printed on acid-free and 100% post-consumer recycled paper with
vegetable-based inks.
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Pevere, Geoff
Donald Shebib’s Goin’ down the road / Geoff Pevere.
(Canadian cinema ; 8)
Includes bibliographical references.
isbn 978-1-4426-4589-9 (bound) isbn 978-1-4426-1410-9 (pbk.)
1. Goin’ down the road (Motion picture) 2. Motion pictures – Canada –
History. 3. Shebib, Donald, 1938– . I. Title. II. Series: Canadian cinema
(Toronto, Ont.) ; 8.
pn1997.g64p49 2012 791.43′72 c2012-902250-0
TIFF and the University of Toronto Press acknowledge the financial
assistance to its publishing program of the Canada Council for the Arts and
the Ontario Arts Council.

This book has been published with the help of a grant from the Canadian
Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences, through the Aid
to Scholarly Publications Program, using funds provided by the Social
Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

University of Toronto Press acknowledges the financial support of the
Government of Canada through the Canada Book Fund for its publishing
activities.
Pevere_4019_i.indd 4 5/10/2012 2:52:24 PM
Contents
Acknowledgments vii
Prologue: A Heavy Rainbow 3
1 Surfing from Scarborough 9
2 Beginner’s Licence 21
3 The Road Rolls 49
4 Is This the One? 67
5 Victims of the Rainbow 87
6 Re-surfacing 99
7 Pete, Joey, Garth, Gord, and Jesus Too 111
8 Further 117
Epilogue: Down the Road Again 121
Production Credits 125
Further Viewing 127
Notes 129
Selected Bibliography 139
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Acknowledgments
There are many people without whom this book would not exist, and I
thank them for helping make sure that it did.
For excavating their first-person memories of the production, I
thank Jayne Eastwood, Doug McGrath, William Fruet, and, of course,
Don Shebib.
For sharing their memories of the film’s initial release and impact,
I thank Robert Fothergill, Piers Handling, Peter Harcourt, and Martin
Knelman.
For identifying potholes along the way, I thank Danielle and Ja-
son Bondy-Sawyer, Randy Cantera, Stephen Cole, Emma Davey, Tra-
vis Hoover, Clark Kingsbury, Carol Maloney, Glenn Pevere, and Robert
Pevere.
At Union Pictures, I thank Trinni Franke, Cam Haynes, and Robin
Cass. Big thanks to the Canadian Cinema series editors Bart Beaty and
Will Straw for ignoring all my other suggestions for book-worthy mov-
ies and insisting on this one. Good call.
Thanks to Siobhan McMenemy of University of Toronto Press for
patience, enthusiasm, and support.
I dedicate this book to Peter Harcourt, the engine-starter.
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DONALD SHEBIB’S
GOIN’ DOWN THE ROAD