Two Countries, One Street by Jean Palardy, National Film Board of Canada
OK, so I have to visit Derby Line and Stanstead and drive down rue Canusa. I’m sure things are a little tighter now than they were fifty or sixty years ago but I’m quite fascinated by the place.
And you have to watch the movie, if only to see the very low-key snow-covered chase scene at the end and hear the Mounties yell, “Stop in the name of the queen!”
I was there last summer and it’s definitely not like it once was. At the library I walked up to the international line and a Border Patrol agent roared up in a huge Tahoe with dark tinted windows. He just sat there, ostensibly observing me, until we left. Once upon a time you could just pass freely between the two towns but all but one point have been blocked off and the one that is open reminds me of Checkpoint Charlie in Berlin during the Cold War. It’s one of the most surreal and fascinating places I’ve ever been, but it’s also very sad given the almost insane level of paranoia exhibited about illegal crossings.