My Winnipeg (2007)
87%RT Audience Score: 77%
Awards & Nominations: 4 wins & 17 nominations
My Winnipeg is a charmingly irreverent ‘docu-fantasy’ from the unpredictable mind of Guy Maddin
My Winnipeg is like a fever dream of a city, with Guy Maddin taking us on a wild ride through his hometown that’s part documentary, part fantasy, and all weird. It’s like if David Lynch made a travelogue, with Masonic rituals, collectivist brothels, and sleepwalking citizens all thrown in for good measure. But amidst all the surrealism, there’s a genuine love for the city that shines through, and some fascinating archival footage that gives a glimpse into Winnipeg’s past. Maddin may be an acquired taste, but for those willing to take the plunge, My Winnipeg is a trip worth taking.
Production Company(ies)
Plattform Produktion Film i Väst Essential Filmproduktion, GmbH,
Distributor
IFC First Take
Release Type
Filming Location(s)
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
MPAA / Certificate
Not Rated
Year of Release
2008
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Color:Color
Black and White -
Sound mix:Dolby Digital
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Aspect ratio:1.33 : 1
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Runtime:1h 20m
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Language(s):English
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Country of origin:United States
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Release date:Release Date (Theaters): Jun 13, 2008 Limited
Release Date (Streaming): Apr 30, 2009
Genre(s)
Documentary
Keyword(s)
documentary, Guy Maddin, Winnipeg, Manitoba, archival footage, interviews, dreamlike camera work, recreated scenes, Ann Savage, Mayor Cornish, Jody Shapiro, Phyllis Lang, George Toles, IFC First Take, Dolby Digital, $156.6K, limited release, English, 1h 20m, reviewed by Judy Berman, Noel Murray, Ben Kenigsberg, Joshua Rothkopf, directed by Guy Maddin, produced by Jody Shapiro and Phyllis Lang, written by Guy Maddin and George Toles, starring Guy Maddin, Ann Savage, Louis Negin, Amy Stewart, Darcy Fehr, Kate Yacula, docu-fantasy, personal tour, historical, intimate, surreal, entertaining, artist, hometown, vintage, old tyme, surrealist look, dark humor, love-it-or-hate-it, emotional resonance, subjective work of art, fantasies, surreal pictures, black and white, Bunuel, Lynch, Hitchcock, Bergman, delirious dream diary
Worldwide gross: $316,743
Worldwide gross (inflation-adjusted): $436,301
Worldwide gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): 2,769
Worldwide tickets sold (est.): 47,579
US/Canada gross: $159,363
US/Canada gross (inflation-adjusted): $219,516
US/Canada gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): 2,530
US/Canada opening weekend: $14,309
US/Canada opening weekend (inflation-adjusted): $19,710
US/Canada opening weekend ranking (inflation-adjusted): 2,518
Budget and Earnings Details
Production budget (est.): $600,000
Production budget (inflation-adjusted): $826,477
Production budget ranking: 2,098
Marketing and distribution budget (inflation-adjusted est.): $445,058
Box office net earnings to date (inflation-adjusted est.): -$835,234
ROI to date (est.): -66%
ROI ranking: 1,783
Ann Savage – Self
Louis Negin – Mayor Cornish
Amy Stewart – Janet Maddin
Darcy Fehr – Guy Maddin
Kate Yacula – Citizen Girl
Jody Shapiro – Producer
Phyllis Lang – Producer
George Toles – Writer
Dolby Digital – Sound Mix
Director(s)
Guy Maddin
Writer(s)
Guy Maddin, George Toles
Producer(s)
Jody Shapiro, Phyllis Lang
Film Festivals
Awards & Nominations
4 wins & 17 nominations
Academy Awards
All Critics (92) | Top Critics (35) | Fresh (87) | Rotten (5)
More an abstract hallucination than a photo-realist portrait, My Winnipeg would be out of place on the “documentary” shelf at the video store. But it deserves prime placement in the Guy Maddin canon.
December 6, 2018 | Rating: 4/5
Judy Berman
Tiny Mix Tapes
TOP CRITIC
Maddin mixes personal reminiscences with elaborate fantasies of Masonic rituals and collectivist brothels, to construct a vision of Winnipeg as a city of sleepwalkers.
January 26, 2015 | Rating: 4/5
Noel Murray
The Dissolve
TOP CRITIC
November 18, 2011 | Rating: 4/5
Ben Kenigsberg
Time Out
TOP CRITIC
November 17, 2011 | Rating: 4/5
Joshua Rothkopf
Time Out
TOP CRITIC
Guy Maddin docu about his hometown gives fans everything they’d expect, plus a few moments of unexpected sincerity.
October 18, 2008
John DeFore
Hollywood Reporter
TOP CRITIC
Maddin is a real film-maker with a confident, fluent movie language that is evolving in fascinating directions.
October 18, 2008 | Rating: 3/5
Peter Bradshaw
Guardian
TOP CRITIC
Beautiful, strange, and endlessly intriguing, there’s a nostalgic bite to the film which lasts well after its bizarre visual poetry subsides from view.
October 29, 2020 | Rating: 4/5
Nicholas Bell
IONCINEMA.com
Occasionally uneven and often opaque and aimless, but it is clear Maddin knows what he’s doing. And by the time it is over, he has transported us not just to Winnipeg, but into the heart and soul of an artist.
July 7, 2019 | Rating: 3/4
Mattie Lucas
From the Front Row
There’s some genuine archival history threaded through the fantasy.
December 16, 2017
Brian D. Johnson
Maclean’s Magazine
…there is no denying that Maddin is pushing not only himself as an artist…
November 17, 2017
Daniel Kasman
MUBI
Guy Maddin has never tipped quite so far in the direction of autobiography as he has with My Winnipeg, and the effect is unexpectedly charming.
August 21, 2017
Annie Wagner
The Stranger (Seattle, WA)
With his thrilling new documentary portrait of his hometown — or rather, his new “docu-fantasia” — Guy Maddin proves that you can go home again.
May 16, 2016
José Teodoro
Stop Smiling…
Plot
Filmmaker Guy Maddin was born, raised and has always lived in Winnipeg, Manitoba, a town where he says everyone sleepwalks through life. He is trying to escape Winnipeg, but isn’t sure how as he isn’t sure what’s kept him there in the first place. Perhaps his parent’s month long 65th wedding anniversary celebration (despite his father being dead for some years) where he will reenact his childhood (with actors playing his family, except his mother who plays herself) in the old family home at 800 Ellis Avenue, which was above the family’s hair salon business, will provide some answers. He recounts some civic events which have affected him and the life of Winnipegers: the 1919 general strike, the destruction of the Wolseley Elm in 1957, and the replacement of the iconic Eaton’s building for the new hockey arena in favor of the old Winnipeg Arena. The latter has an especially close connection to him because of a family tie and the rich history of hockey in the city (discounting what he considers the failure of the NHL experiment). As he is on the train leaving the city, he hopes that the page 3 “Citizen Girl” will be the panacea for all Winnipeg’s issues.
Trivia
Goofs / Tidbits
There is no specific tidbit about someone in the cast mentioned in the Fresh Kernels description of My Winnipeg.
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