Roundtrip

Directed by Philippe Léonard

Roundtrip is a three-minute film that documents two train journeys (from New York City to Montreal, and back again) undertaken by Leonard and his partner in the fall of 2014. Through the consistent use of a split-screen, the two journeys can be observed side-by-side, unfolding in parallel within the film’s vertically divided frame. The purpose of the trip was to visit the father of Leonard’s partner in hospital where he was receiving a kidney transplant from his own sister. While this background information is not made available to viewers of the film, it constitutes the hidden narrative center of the film which is further mirrored in the work’s formal concern with questions of division and unity.