Festival Express
Director Bob Smeaton’s rock ‘n road-trip movie, featuring some of 1970’s preeminent musicians on a five day train tour through Canada, is an essential time capsule of what happened when the swinging sixties made its awkward leap into the unforgiving after-party of the ’70s. There are eye-opening run-ins with hostile fans along the way but the camaraderie of the musicians, including Janis Joplin, The Band and The Grateful Dead keeps spirits high (literally). Because the tour was a financial disaster, the footage sat unused in a garage for years before being resurrected for presentation at the 2003 Toronto Film Festival.
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About Allan Arkush
A record collector and film buff from birth, Allan Arkush brought his two loves together in directing the cult classic Rock ‘n’ Roll High School. Back in the day Allan was directing and executive producing television series like Heroes, and Crossing Jordan. He has also directed episodes of Ally McBeal, Moonlighting, St. Elsewhere, Fame, A Series of Unfortunate Events and TV Movies like Elvis Meets Nixon and Shake Rattle & Rock as well as the mini-series, The Temptations, for which he won an Emmy. He used to have a lost film, Get Crazy, but Kino/Lorber found it in time for Christmas 2021. His day job is teaching Film production & history at the AFI.