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I passed the wreck not long after crossing into Saskatchewan. Day 3, alone, driving west toward Vancouver. On the other side of the highway, a twisted mess of iron and steel. Rail cars like beached whales strewn arbitrarily in heaps rupturing the perspective symmetry of the endless prairie. At once an allusion to the fallibility of industrialisation and modernity, I felt after it had flashed past the windscreen, that there were significations here that reached far deeper than this immediate, literal interpretation.  Half an hour after I had watched the image recede completely into the eastern horizon through my side view mirror, the memory of this apocalyptic tableaux - its’ darkly poetic irony - would compel me to turn back.

Technical Specifications
year(s) of production  1995 - 1997
production format(s) 16mm (7222 b&w negative)
exhibition format 16mm (7302 b&w print)
aspect ratio 1:1.37
projection speed 24fps
running time 4:00
separate cd sound / optical sound (mono) when shown with Nation.

Credits
John Price : cinematography, negative processing, optical printing, print processing, editing, sound design & mix, negative conforming & cutting.

McClear Digital / Ray Cooke : optical sound transfer.

Gastown Labs : print & print processing (color version).