9° FESTIVAL INTERNAZIONALE CINEMA GIOVANI
Feature Film Competition 1991
Highway 61
by Bruce McDonald
Country: Canada
Year: 1991
Duration: 110'
Along haired skinny kid freezes to death behind a barbershop in Northern Ontario. Pokey Jones, the barber who finds him is King for a day until Jackie, a woman claiming to be his sister, lays claim to the body. Together they pack the corpse on the roof of a '63 Ford Galaxy 500 and set off for New Orleans. Jackie, a fugitive from the rock 'n' roll circus sees the trip as a chance to win her freedom. Pokey, the dreamer sees the long trek down Highway 61 as a funeral procession befitting a rock legend. But between the Lake Head and The Big Easy lies a giant obstacle: America. To make matters worse, Mr. Skin, a selfstyled Satan, is hot on their trail and he's not going to stop until he gets ahold of the Kid's freeze dried soul. The highway promises to bring Pokey and Jackie together if it doesn't rip them apart first.
Biography
film director
Bruce McDonald
Bruce McDonald (Kingston, Canada, 1959) graduated in film from Ryerson University. In 1985 he shot the 16mm feature film Knock! Knock!, which was presented at the 4th Festival Cinema Giovani in Torino. In 1989 he won the prize for best Canadian film at the Toronto Film Festival with the movie Roadkill, the first chapter of his trilogy dedicated to rock’n’roll, followed by Highway 61 (1991), which won Best Director at the Festival in San Sebastián, and the mockumentary Hard Core Logo (1997), Best Canadian Film at the Festival in Vancouver. He participated several times to the Torino Film Festival over the years, presenting movies like Pontypool (2009), This Movie Is Broken (2010), and The Husband (2013).
FILMOGRAFIA
Let Me See (cm, 1982), Knock! Knock! (coregia/codirector Daniel Brooks, 1985), Roadkill (1989), Highway 61 (1991), Dance Me Outside (1994), Hard Core Logo (1996), Elimination Dance (cm, 1997), Fort Goof (cm, 1999), The City (ep. Gorky Parkette; Just Like Honey, tv, 2000), Lex (ep. Garden; Tunnel, tv, 2000), Road Songs: A Portrait of Robbie Robertson (tv, doc., 2001), Picture Claire (Sola nella trappola, 2001), The Love Crimes of Gillian Guess (tv, 2004), The Dark Room (tv, 2007), The Tracey Fragments (2007), Pontypool (2008), This Movie Is Broken (2010), Trigger (2010), Hard Core Logo 2 (2010), The Husband (2013), Hellions (2015).
Declaration
film director
"Music is just the subtext of Highway 61: it lays out the map for the journey. My real concerns are for the souls of the main characters: Pokey Jones, Jackie Bangs and Mr. Skin (aka Satan), and how they each discover their own sense of worth and morality." (Bruce McDonald)
Cast
& Credits
Director: Bruce McDonald.
Screenplay: Don McKellar.
Director of photography: Miroslaw Baszak.
Art director: Ian Brock.
Editor: Michael Pacek.
Music: Nash the Slash.
Sound: Steve Munro.
Cast and characters: Valerie Buhagiar (Jackie Bangs), Don McKellar (Pokey Jones), Earl Pastko (Mr. Skin/Satana), Peter Breck (Mr. Watson), Art Bergmann (Otto), Jello Biafra, Tav Falco, Tracy Wright, Johnny Askwith, Namir Khan, Steve Fall, Larry Hudson.
Production company: Shadow Show Entertainment, 345 Adelaide St. West, suite 601, Toronto, Ontario M5V1R5, tel. 4165959867, fax 4165951077.
Foreign sales agent: Cinephile Limited Andre Bennett, 388 King St. West, suite 211, Toronto, Ontario M5V1K2, tel. 4165811251, fax 4165811382.
Screenplay: Don McKellar.
Director of photography: Miroslaw Baszak.
Art director: Ian Brock.
Editor: Michael Pacek.
Music: Nash the Slash.
Sound: Steve Munro.
Cast and characters: Valerie Buhagiar (Jackie Bangs), Don McKellar (Pokey Jones), Earl Pastko (Mr. Skin/Satana), Peter Breck (Mr. Watson), Art Bergmann (Otto), Jello Biafra, Tav Falco, Tracy Wright, Johnny Askwith, Namir Khan, Steve Fall, Larry Hudson.
Production company: Shadow Show Entertainment, 345 Adelaide St. West, suite 601, Toronto, Ontario M5V1R5, tel. 4165959867, fax 4165951077.
Foreign sales agent: Cinephile Limited Andre Bennett, 388 King St. West, suite 211, Toronto, Ontario M5V1K2, tel. 4165811251, fax 4165811382.
