Rattle

The film is, at once, a document of a great Canadian multinational facing perilous agricultural “sophistication,” and a lament – a witness to the element of ruin that plagues industry. The Massey Harris King Street Factory (Toronto) was built in 1879 to a chorus of consternation. The size and scope were unprecedented in Canada at that time, and it established this company (later to be Massey Ferguson) as a major manufacturing firm in the agricultural industry. The film is a journey through the remnants of the factory which, for years, served as the pillar of the corporation. Seen from afar, and then spiraling in to the courtyard, signs of destruction lay everywhere. The camera moves into the buildings, traveling through torn corridors and vast chambers. Outside, the smash of a hammer leads to the demolition in progress, as tractors, trucks, cranes and bulldozers, like so many insects, systematically raze the structure. The sound/title denotes a dying gasp; the violence of transformation.