Opens in Vancouver, BC
Starting December 2, 2016
Vancity Theatre
1181 Seymour St
In 1976, Canadian daredevil Ken Carter announced his intention to fly a rocket-car a mile from the banks of the St. Lawrence to U.S. territory on the other side. His vision was to land cushily on a field of roses. The great Evel Knievel called it, “the daredevil stunt to end all daredevil stunts.” Time has largely erased the ill-advised stunt from modern memory. But in 2008, eccentric Vancouver musician Mark Haney commenced an epic (and some thought equally insane) Carter-commemorative concept album for double bass, with stream-of-conscious monologues and songs, all set to a melody based on the irrational number Pi.
The two quixotic obsessions – 30 years apart – converge in John Bolton’s audacious Aim For The Roses, an artistically infused documentary that tells both improbable stories in lyrical and connected fashion. Carter’s saga is told in copious archival interviews, footage and contemporary expert witnesses. It is also filtered through the prism of Haney’s creativity (along with Haney’s own story of his dissatisfaction with the “normal” life of a bassist and his burning need for a redemptive creative challenge).