Festival express
(DVD) 

Directors of photography, Peter Biziou, Bob Fiore ; music mixed by Eddie Kramer ; Editor, Eamonn Power ; story consultant, James Cullingham ; archivist/researcher, John Rotstein ; 2002-2003 interview shoot: director of photography, Steven Hall ; Original film crew: producer, Willem Poolman ; sound recordist, Niley Duke ; camera operators, Clarke MacKey, Ted McLelland, Dennis Miller ; assembly editors, Mark Elliott, David Maltby ; concert promoter, Ken Walker ; director, Frank Cvitanovich.

Featured performances by: The Band: Rick Danko, Levon Helm, Garth Hudson, Richard Manuel, Robbie Robertson; Delaney & Bonnie & Friends: Bonnie Bramlett, Delaney Bramlett, Ben Benay, Sam Clayton, Jim Gordon, Kenny Gradney, Jerry Jumonville, Darrel Leonard, Frank Maize, Chuck Morgan; The Flying Burrito Brothers: Michael Clarke, Chris Hillman, Sneaky Pete Kleinow, Bernie Leadon; Grateful Dead: Jerry Garcia, Mickey Hart, Bill Kreutzman, Phil Lesh, Ron "Pigpen" McKernan, Bob Weir; Buddy Guy Blues Band: Buddy Guy, Phil Guy, Leroy Stewart, A.C. Reed, Roosevel "Snake" Shaw; Ian & Sylvia & the Great Speckled Bird: Ian Tyson, Sylvia Tyson, Buddy Cage, Jim Colegrove, Amos Garrett, N.D. Smart; Janis Joplin: Richard Bell, Brad Campbell, Janis Joplin, Ken Pearson, Clark Pierson, John Till; Mashmakhan: Rayburn Blake, Brian Edwards, Jerry Mercer, Pierre Senecal; Sha Na Na: Donny Yorke, Jocko Marcellino, Screamin' Scott Simon, Lennie Baker, Jon Bauman, Elliot Cahn, Bruce Clarke, Dennie Greene, Larry Israel Packer, Richard Joffe, Scott Powell; Interviewees: Eric Andersen, Richard Bell, Rob Bowman, James Cullingham, David Dalton, Buddy Guy, Kenny Gradney, Mickey Hart, Phil Lesh, Jerry Mercer, Ken Pearson, John Till, Sylvia Tyson, Ken Walker, Bob Weir.

Originally produced as a documentary in 2003.

During the summer of 1970, a series of music festivals took place across Canada. After the first festival in Toronto, the musicians, their roadies and a film crew traveled by private train to the remaining festivals in Winnipeg and Calgary. This is the story of the Festival Express. The tour was a financial flop, and thanks of a fight between the festival promoters and the film producers, no film was edited or exhibited. So this film is, in effect, a brand new film from 1970. If the tour itself was not a success, the party that accompanied it became legend: take one private train, add eight bands full of talented musicians get impromptu jams fueled by drugs and liquor in every car. The main attraction is two now deceased headliners, Janis Joplin and Jerry Garcia, seen both on stage and off. Filmed only two months before Joplin's death, the sequences involving her are truly electrifying and capture her at the height of her self-consuming talent. The Grateful Dead are captured while in the midst of recording and releasing its two essential albums (Workingman's Dead and American Beauty). It captures a pure moment in time when musical hearts and minds beat as one, when musicians of all stripes--without benefit of publicists, handlers, or security goons--came together to work and play hard and leave behind one damn fine-looking corpse.

MPAA rating: Rated R for some language.

DVD; Region 1; 5.1 Dolby digital surround sound, DTS surround sound, 2.0 stereo ; widescreen presentation, preserving the original 1.85:1 aspect ratio.

In English with optional subtitles in English or Spanish; closed captioned.