My Winnipeg (2007) Guy Maddin

Fact, fantasy and memory are woven seamlessly together in this portrait of film-maker Guy Maddin’s home town of Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Filmmaker Guy Maddin was born, raised and has always lived in Winnipeg, Manitoba, a town where he says everyone sleepwalks through life. He is trying to escape Winnipeg, but isn’t sure how as he isn’t sure what’s kept him there in the first place. Perhaps his parent’s month long 65th wedding anniversary celebration (despite his father being dead for some years) where he will reenact his childhood (with actors playing his family, except his mother who plays herself) in the old family home at 800 Ellis Avenue, which was above the family’s hair salon business, will provide some answers. He recounts some civic events which have affected him and the life of Winnipegers: the 1919 general strike, the destruction of the Wolseley Elm in 1957, and the replacement of the iconic Eaton’s building for the new hockey arena in favor of the old Winnipeg Arena. The latter has an especially close connection to him because of a family tie and the rich history of hockey in the city (discounting what he considers the failure of the NHL experiment). As he is on the train leaving the city, he hopes that the page 3 “Citizen Girl” will be the panacea for all Winnipeg’s issues.

My Winnipeg (2007)