Written & Directed by Alan Segal
We live through many compelling events. ‘Compelling’ does not place a value on their meanings, only that some are symbolically powerful.
They might stay in social and personal memory, often they’re forgotten.
During the Depression of the 1930s, relief camps were set up in the interior of British Columbia that housed unemployed individuals. They built public works and cleared sections of the province. In 1935, many left the camps to protest inadequate medical and living conditions, and the promises to them by government that were not followed. They marched to Vancouver, and in the city. After determining a more dramatic effort was needed, they tied themselves to the tops of freight trains bound for Ottawa.
Trek is a documentary film that commemorates the 75th anniversary of that action. Filming was in each of the stops along the route, almost to the date on which they arrived in them in 1935. Throughout the journey, more people joined the trek. The movement was halted in Regina after confrontations with police and RCMP.