GREY ROADS HAVE SILVER LININGS @HOT DOCS 2021

We spoke with director Jesse McCracken about his documentary Motel in 2017 at Hot Docs. We became aware of his passion for telling stories that were near and dear to him. The Toronto-based filmmaker shot this stunning documentary about micro-communities forming in motels in the tourist areas of Niagara Falls. For his latest installment Grey Roads, he goes back to his roots in the small declining town of Markdale, Ontario. He revisits his estranged father and grandfather who both shaped him into what he is today. This visit is to answer his more pertinent questions. What it is to be a man? Why did my parents get a divorce? Lastly, will the town of Markdale survive? His father and grandfather are living their last chapters in their lives against a backdrop of a town in decay. It begs the question if there’s a silver lining in Jesse’s playbook?

The film is in black and white symbolizing this journey to Jesse’s past. He reconnects through the stories about his father and grandfather growing up in the town of Markdale. His maternal grandfather lived through the rise and fall of the town. He worked at Chapman’s ice cream factory where it was once a dream to have a job there. Now a workplace for immigrants to Canada where wages are low and labour is high. He tells his stories of how he used to drink, party and play pool when he was younger. All that subsided as he got older and began a family. He became part of the Rotary Club to find his footing but Markdale began to dwindle a lot further as time went on.

He speaks of small business closures in the downtown core where it was once vibrant. The black and white palette of the film becomes more meaningful and expresses much depth. It speaks of decay and near-death. The only colour that is holding on to the town is those who reside in it. As morbid as this sounds, the silver lining to this grey part of Jesse’s bonding with his grandfather is divine. There is an angelic nature in filming his grandfather who gives hope to Jesse’s own self-reflection during his existential questioning.

Jesse meets up with his father who is the darker part of this grey road. His father represents a culture that is hyper-masculine who has hung on to his beliefs since the dawn of time. These toxic behaviours and verbiage have been since deemed now unacceptable but always appropriate within his circle. Jesse’s mother divorced him and escaped Markdale. So the father’s immediate family now are the motorcycle gang called The Redneck Riders. They all still ride into the sunset and embed in their beliefs and old-school mentality.

His father does make mention to Jesse that it’s okay for others who are not like himself or his band of friends to come into the town of Markdale and seek opportunity. It’s questionable from a man who thought that he would not see the age of thirty because of his rock-star partying. Just like the town of Markdale, his father holding on to those same beliefs is shortsighted towards a bright future. The silver lining with Jesse’s father is that he lived his life to the fullest by standing up for what he believes in. Not many can say that. Too many have regrets.

This intergenerational analysis of Jesse’s family is necessary to those daunting questions that he has. Both his father and grandfather are comfortable where they are at in their lives in the town of Markdale. It is rather difficult to pick up and go at this stage of their life when much of their past already foretell their future. For Jesse, it is really difficult to accept their unwillingness to change but he must embrace this in order for himself to move on. His deeper questions will be answered in a greater context one day. Meaning that this cloudy state that Jesse is in has some silver lining to it.

Grey Roads is a personal film from Jesse McCracken but there is more to his narration of his family. This is a film about the struggle with acceptance. Jesse has a difficult time that his parents are not together anymore. His father is struggling with immigrants coming to the town of Markdale where he believes he and his Redneck Riders still run. His grandfather hopes those old times in Markdale will revive back in the downtown core. Also, the town appointing a non-white deputy mayor in Aakash Desai is still a work in progress. As a result, the community of Markdale is struggling with its vision of the future and that things won’t remain the same but will be different.

Filmmaker Jesse McCracken paints a fine display of what it was like to grow up in the town of Markdale, Ontario. Whether or not people find it offensive that motorcycle gangs like Redneck Riders still exist is not the issue. Or that forms of masculinity that are deemed toxic today should be wiped out on film. Also, Markdale is known to be a sleepy town for Toronto commuters of whom rural communities love to hate. These issues should not primarily be the focus of the film. Those identities and communities and their development in Markdale are essential to note. It’s when we deny someone’s identity is when we hit a slippery slope.

Grey Roads is a historical piece that should stand the test of time because of its intriguing narrative. These are the stories that need to be shared in the future. These stories that develop in the rural towns of the Ontario province are the ones that we should hold true to our hearts. As compelling as this documentary is, there are not enough of them. We hope that Jesse McCracken is pioneering this movement in filmmaking. That is finding out what is really going on in our backyard.

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