Since its release in July 1970, Donald Shebib’s low-budget road movie about displaced Maritimers in Toronto has become one of the most celebrated Canadian movies ever made. In this study of Goin’ Down the Road, renowned film critic Geoff Pevere provides an engaging account of how a film produced under largely improvised circumstances became the most influential Canadian movie of its day as well as an enduring cultural touchstone.

Featuring extensive interviews with the film’s key participants, Pevere provides behind-the-scenes history and explores how the movie’s meaning and interpretation have changed over time. He gives special attention to the question of why the film’s creative mix of documentary techniques, road movie tropes, and social commentary have proven so popular and influential in Canadian filmmaking for decades.

Geoff Pevere is one of Canada's leading pop culture commentators and movie critics. The former host of CBC Radio's groundbreaking Prime Time program, he is also the co-?author of the national bestseller Mondo Canuck: A Canadian Pop Culture Odyssey. Currently a movie columnist with the Globe and Mail, he was a movie critic with the Toronto Star for ten years, a TV host with TVOntario and Rogers Television, and a lecturer on film and media. His other books include Toronto on Film and Donald Shebib's Goin' Down the Road.

Geoff Pevere's profile page

“Geoff Pevere's new book, Donald Shebib's Goin' Down the Road is an essential companion to the classic Canadian film. It should be required reading in every film course in Canada and elsewhere.”

Northernstars.ca