Review by Margaret Pomeranz

Way back in 1970 in the wake of Woodstock a group of rock musicians, including Janis Joplin, The Band, The Grateful Dead, Delaney and Bonnie, Buddy Guy and others committed to a cross-Canada festival tour, beginning in Toronto.

To make their way cross-country to the next venues in Winnipeg and Calgary a train was hired. It was the Festival Express.

Despite protests in Toronto from fans who thought the concerts should be free, despite a heap of booze and assorted drugs, the musicians gave great concerts and jammed informally as they wended their way across a continent.

Some of the people involved are interviewed for the film, giving terrific insight into just what it was like in those heady five days.

The material for this film had been stored in the National Film Archives of Canada for 25 years because the original production company went into receivership. It was rediscovered in 1994 in pristine condition.

Thank the Lord. Because there is something so real, something so exhilarating about this experience, it must rank as one of the best rock documentaries ever.

It was shot by Peter Biziou on 16 mm and he supervised its transition to 35 mm 33 years later. Apart from the behind the scenes footage, the concerts themselves are a knockout.

I emerged from 'Festival Express' totally excited, just blown away by the rawness, the innocence of the times and by the music.

Further comments

Margaret: David, did you love it?

David: I don't think the times were so innocent, though. Were they?

Margaret: It was before Watergate. Everything was innocent.

David: Oh, you mean politically.

Margaret: Yes.

David: OK, yes, 'cause I think there was, as we'd gathered, a lot of naughty goings-on on the train.

Margaret: Yeah, but I don't think that sort of innocence is what I'm talking about.

David: The music is wonderful. I mean, it's sort of my era for great music.

Margaret: Yes

David: And so it is, as you say, it's wonderful that this material was rediscovered after all this time because the musicians are just great, the concerts are great. But all that feeling of the camaraderie between the different bands

Margaret: Yes

David: And the players on the train is just superb. And all of the back stories really are quite fascinating as well.

Margaret: But don't you think, What exhilarated me was the fact that all music these days seems so produced and this was so natural and raw.

David: Yeah, just spontaneous.

Margaret: The performances are so great.

David: And it's also a bit touching to remember that because of Janis Joplin's participation in all of this that she died a very short time after the film was shot.

Margaret: Yeah, I think two months. I'm giving this 4.5 stars. I thought it was fabulous.

David: It is fabulous. I'm giving it 3.5.

Festival Express

Review by Tom Anderson

Great music, incredible footage.

July 22, 2004 - Within the realm of rock and roll lore there is one music festival that holds a special place as being one of the best festivals of all time. Now it wasn't the biggest festival. Nor was it the loudest. And it may not have even featured the most legendary acts within the classic rock pantheon. And no, we're not talking about Woodstock. On the contrary, the one festival that is repeatedly called out by the artists who participated in it as "The Happiest and Best" music festival ever assembled is the subject of the new documentary Festival Express.

Actually, this film technically isn't a new documentary. It is, in fact, a very old documentary that has finally been given a new lease on life. The original footage for the film was shot way back in the summer of 1970 during the course of the festival train trek across Canada. However, due to lack of funding, most of the footage was placed in storage in various places and, for all intents and purposes, forgotten. That is until then one day in the mid 1990s when some intrepid film students took it upon themselves to go find the rumored "long lost footage of the Canadian Woodstock." Thus, many years and many rounds of funding later the finished work is finally chugging into a theater near you.

Festival Express brings to light the almost forgotten story of the little festival that could through a combination of recent video interviews with some of the surviving participants along with original 16mm footage from the actual event. While the bulk of the film revolves around live musical footage, there is a story running underneath. It goes a little something like this: in 1970 a Canadian promoter took it upon himself to gather several rock and roll acts, place them on a choo-choo train and send them across Canada for a series of music festivals. The festivals turned out to be the backdrop for a much larger zeitgeist event – the music-filled party train rollicking across the Canadian countryside. So in truth, Festival Express is not only a document of the festival concerts, but also the music scene that was created on the train between gigs.

As a documentary, the film succeeds on many levels. On a purely visual plane, the work is a stunning tour de force. Instead of modernizing the original 16mm footage, the filmmakers allowed the film to maintain its original look and feel. The concert footage has the cinematic integrity of the other major concert films of that era (e.g. Woodstock or D.A. Pennebaker's Monterey Pop), employing such techniques as split screen and cinema verite camera angles. Additionally, an assortment of interview clips shot in the past five years keeps the narrative on track. Plus it's interesting to juxtapose modern footage of artists such as Buddy Guy and Mickey Hart with their archival counterparts from 1970.

Then there's the music. In a word: WOW! Staying true to the style of music films of the era, the filmmakers show concert performances in their entirely, warts and all, or in this case, pimples and all. It's difficult not to get chills watching a then 27-year-old Janis Joplin incite the crowd with her deep blues tones and scat (note – scat as in the blues' precursor to rap not scat as in the stuff of German schize videos). Over the course of the 90-minute film you're treated to electrifying performances by The Band, Buddy Guy, Mashmakan, the Flying Burrito Brothers, Sha Na Na and Ian & Sylvia & The Great Speckled Bird. And that's merely the concert footage which was captured on film and still salvageable after all those years of being "lost.".

Needless to say, whether you're a fan of the period or not, the concert footage is stellar. But what made this Festival so special, what truly made it the "Happiest and Best festival" of the rock and roll era was the train ride itself. Between each concert, the train bustled across Canada while the musicians sat in the cars, jamming and partying long into the night. The jamming went all day and all night for the duration of the trip. As Buddy Guy says in one of his interviews clips, "Every time I went to bed I was afraid I would miss something." As can be expected, there was little to no sleeping on the train.

While much of the concert footage is near epic in scope, the music taken from these impromptu jam sessions has a special quality all its own. The artists were able to let their guards down, effectively allowing their rock star personas to fade away. Since there were no screaming fans to perform for and there were no contractual obligations forcing them to sing their hits, there was no pressure whatsoever. What was left were several dozen people who lived, breathed and partied, all the while playing music for no one but each other. Although most of the artists who rode that train discussed it in latter interviews, the sentiment is best summed up by Jerry Garcia (who, incidentally, passed away before the "lost" footage was rediscovered and does not appear in the interview portion of the film): "That was the best time I've had in rock and roll. It was the musicians' train. There wasn't any showbiz bullsh@t. It was like a musicians' convention with no public allowed."

It's interesting to note that apart from Sha Na Na, who have their roots in Doo Wop, all of the bands featured have their roots in country blues oriented rock and roll. Because of this most of the jams in the film are centered on country blues rock themes. You may find this music boring on the surface, but the passion with which it is infused on the train should speak even to the most hardened cynic. And while there are plenty of jam sessions featured in the film, one can only hope even more will be added on the DVD, perhaps even something specifically highlighting Ron "Pigpen" McKernan's blues prowess (hint hint!).

Strangely enough, there's a third aspect to the film. Sure, it's a concert film about a cadre of bands trekking across Canada on a train. But it also the story of Ken Walker, the crazy promoter who had a dream. Despite the financial disasters which occurred from the get go, he never said die. Whether it was arranging a free afternoon concert for thousands of ticketless fans outside the Toronto leg of the festival or stopping the train at a liquor store (literally, in front of a liquor store) so that the musicians could replenish their libations, Ken was a true believer in the old adage "The Show Must Go On."

Ken's can do spirit can be seen as an apt metaphor for the long, strange trip of this hitherto lost film. "Festival Express is the film that refused to die, first spending a generation lying dormant in the original producer's garage, then in the Canadian National Archives, and now, in 2004, the film is finally being shown. Catch this train if you can.

4.5 stars