Saskatchewan Part 2

TAKE ONE, March-June, 2004 by Tom McSorley

2003 13m prod One Ton Ant Moving Images, p Tobi Lampard, d/ph/ed Brian Stockton. mus The Supers.

Before its name was changed to Regina, Saskatchewan's capital city and home to the RCMP used to be known as "Pile of Bones." This second instalment in Brian Stockton's personalized documentary-cum-diary film cycle, Saskatchewan Part 2 (subtitled The Epic Story of My Life Part 2, Ages 2-5. That's My Wonderful Town) is a wry, observant, miniature masterpiece about that fabled place on the prairies where he was raised. With its brilliant melange of contemporary footage, archival photos, historical facts and figures, home movies and witty re-enactments of his kindergarten days (featuring a winning appearance by Keaton L. Stockton, the filmmaker's son), Stockton nimbly weaves together rich, alternating tones of wistful nostalgia, gentle derision and self-deprecation. Rendered in luminous and intelligently utilized 35-mm cinemascope, Saskatchewan Part 2 both embodies and analyzes the complex nature of nostalgia and the unexpected intersections of civic history and personal reminiscence. Concluding with a haunting Wilco-esque reinterpretation of Regina's 1970s cornball city anthem, "That's My Wonderful Town" (performed with lovely drowsy slack precision by The Supers), Stockton demonstrates an awareness of the sentimental, kitschy traps of civic boosterism and yet delivers a moving, penetrating examination of those abiding, sometimes contradictory affections one can develop in long-term relationships with a partner, a lover, a parent, or, yes, even an old "Pile of Bones."