Across Canada by train with VIA Rail: a NOMADslow.tv Journey aboard The Canadian

Jason Rodi
7 minutes ago
4 min read

I’ve been creating Slow TV for over five years now, more than 500 hours of original, ambient films streaming daily on NOMADslow.tv. From the beginning, I knew that nothing would lend itself more naturally to Slow TV than the train. After all, cinema itself was born with the image of a train arriving at a station. The train remains one of cinema’s most powerful metaphors because, like cinema itself, its essence is movement.

So when the opportunity came to collaborate with VIA Rail on a cinematic journey aboard The Canadian, I felt everything align. Here was a chance to rediscover my country, not through narration or promotion, but through presence. To mark the 70th anniversary of VIA Rail’s legendary route, we set out to create not a documentary, but a moving poem : 28 hours of Slow TV across Canada, scored live by ANTENNAE, the ensemble of thirty musicians who gather weekly at NOMAD’s Mile End studio.

What is Slow TV?

Slow TV is a cinematic genre that, instead of being about plot, is about pace. Traditional Slow TV is often real-time, raw coverage of an ordinary event, like Norway’s iconic Bergen-to-Oslo train ride, filmed in its entirety with only ambient sound. It’s meditative, observational, unhurried.

With NOMADslow.tv, I take that foundation and elevate it. The films become like moving paintings: long, handheld shots, always in motion, always on a journey, paired with original live music. There is no narration, no messaging. Just light, landscape, rhythm, and sound.

Unlike travel documentaries filled with fast edits and commentary, Slow TV doesn’t tell you what to think. It gives your attention back to you. It transforms the screen from a source of noise into a window for reflection and wonder.

The Journey East to West

The timing of this project couldn’t have been more meaningful. Like many Canadians, I’ve felt a stirring of national pride this past year, a renewed gratitude for this land and what it represents. I’ve long dreamed of making a cross-country exploration, part of my own quest for decolonization, but this opportunity to traverse Canada from East to West felt like a gift, an answered call.

To sit on The Canadian and watch the world go by is pure poetry. The quiet story on the horizon is layered: exploration, conquest, natural beauty, ancestral lands. You don’t capture something as vast as Canada and its railway by chasing it; you surrender to it. I trusted the land to reveal itself: the endless lakes of Ontario that stretch on far longer than expected; the ritual of riding straight into the sunset each evening as we moved westward; and that first golden dawn on the Prairies, seas of amber grain glowing beneath a sky of endless light.

In those moments, time folded in on itself. For seventy years Canadians have looked out from this same train window at the same horizon. Those rails are more than infrastructure. They are the veins of the country, carrying stories, migrations, and memories. Like timelines in my editing suite, they retell the history of a nation, frame by frame. Looking out that window is what timelessness feels like.

And then the Rockies. Nothing prepares you for their scale. Suddenly this train, which had seemed immense, becomes tiny, dwarfed by ancient mountains. It’s humbling, yes, but also comforting, reminding us that we are part of something enduring, something bigger than ourselves.

That’s why I often left the train window in the frame: a subtle reminder that what you are seeing is not fantasy but reality. You are here with me, aboard The Canadian, part of Canada’s living story as it unfolds before us.

What I Hope You’ll Feel

What I felt on the journey, and what I hope these films transmit, is grounding : a deep sense of place. These films don’t ask for your attention; they give it back to you, creating space for your own thoughts and reflections.

For Canadians, I hope this series reawakens pride, not the boastful kind, but a quiet certainty that this is home. That our country is defined not just by borders or symbols but by the land itself, by the rails that connect it, by the timeless views that shape who we are.

For others, I hope it opens a window to Canada not just as a geography but as a state of mind: vast, diverse, poetic. To feel Canada is to feel the land itself : limitless, grounding, and full of possibility.

Experience the Series

We’ve made the full series available in multiple forms:

6-Hour Film – streaming on VIA Rail’s YouTube channel.
14-Episode / 28-Hour Slow Series – streaming now on my own YouTube playlist and on NOMADslow.tv/via
6 Movements / 14 Hours – a condensed version for VIA Rail, also on their channel.

You can start anywhere, at any length. Let it play in the background as you work, cook, or write. Watch for five minutes, or let it flow for hours. Like sunlight through a window, or the hum of passing tracks, it’s meant to live with you.

Gratitude

My deepest thanks go to VIA Rail for trusting this vision. Their openness shows they understand what slow travel truly means: not rushing to a destination, but becoming the journey itself, embodying a place. That is what I call The Way of the NOMAD, and Love The Way also happens to be VIA's slogan, so I guess this could not be a more natural collaboration for us. I am immensely grateful for it. This may be my favorite project ever.

The Canadian is a vessel of memory, myth, and meaning. I believe what we’ve created together is timeless, and I hope it brings you not just closer to Canada, but closer to yourself.

Stream the full journey now: