Lost Railway
Crossing Canada by train from East to West: a dream! Bewitching landscapes. Dizzy cities. Dynamism and positivity. The picture seems enchanting. The other side of the story less so. Strange travelers have boarded. Some without luggage. Others, with no idea of returning. A few backpackers too. A little bewildered... Over the days, life stories. Often in monologue. But dialogue is now a high-wire act. Sensitivities are raw. Political correctness makes exchanges highly inflammable!
Outside the immensity. A great nowhere. Lost territories and communities. Relegation, uprootedness, galloping inflation and the painkiller crisis are seriously threatening balances and upsetting horizons. Shipwreck looms. Cities are the hardest hit, but no territory is spared. Psychological fragility, compensated for by exacerbated "political correctness". Unless it actually encourages it... Exponential use of opioids as painkillers, to the point of significantly reducing life expectancy... Far from the clichés, the picture is darkening. Has pain become the Achilles' heel of our ultra-liberal societies? The question arises. Because that's where the "evil" entered!
Geography merges with history in the making... Disturbing. Worrying. Is Canada, closer to us culturally than the USA, holding up a mirror to us? Is this train rolling towards our future? And so... Eulogy of escape? Even illusory. Even fatal. Perhaps now is not the time for distraction, but for oblivion. To disappearance...
"Lost Railway" also pays homage to David Lynch. The frail veneer masking human madness, the lurking shadow and the violence always ready to emerge. A few ominous hints, too. Those of a world in the process of decomposition...
Project in development following my trip aboard the Transcanadien in winter 2023.
In addition to this soundscape project, I produced a radio documentary on this transcontinental journey (26'). Broadcast on La Première (RTBF) in Olivier Nederlandt's Transversales program, on Saturday June 15, 2024.
To find out more: this excellent "Envoyé Spécial" documentary !
"Highly effective in relieving pain but extremely addictive, opioids have flooded the American market. They are at the root of a terrible health crisis, with 72,000 overdose deaths in 2017 alone. An elderly couple lifeless on a bench in the middle of the street, a little girl crying in front of her mom who has lost consciousness in the aisles of a supermarket: a type of shock video that seems to be on the increase. Seemingly ordinary Americans are overdosing... because of their addiction to painkillers. It often starts with a backache, chronic pain or rheumatism: their doctor prescribes opioids, highly effective pain-relieving but extremely addictive drugs. A terrible spiral And so the spiral begins: mothers, workers and pensioners become totally dependent. In just a few years, this type of pill flooded the American market. They are at the root of one of the country's most serious health crises, with 72,000 deaths in 2017 alone. An exceptional document in an America in the throes of an overdose".
By Pierre Monégier, Brice Baubit and Emmanuel Lejeune
