1889 Shand Mason Fire Engine Pistons Drive Railway Construction Movie: Life For Mile Along
The year was 1889 that this Shand Mason Horse-Drawn Steam Fire Engine came into existence and later used by the Vancouver Fore Department in an effort to better equipped for fire-fighting after the Great Fire of 1886 that destroyed almost the entire city just two months after it was incorporated.
All these dates are significant. In 1885, the transcontinental railway that united Canada as a nation was finished and soon after that, Vancouver was incorporated as a city. All of that brings us to the movie: Life For Mile which is a period movie set in the 1880s that is being produced right now. I am involved as the film’s producer and screenwriter.
As I stood watching the pistons of the steam fire engine goes up and down, my mind started racing. I thought back to the days of the Chinese railroad workers. After the railway was finished, they had no means of going back home to Canton China as the Canadian government (and railroad company) conveniently forgot to pay their return boat fare that was promised when the Chinese were hired.
Some of the Chinese died in building the railway due to the hard work, bad living conditions, poor diet, diseases and most important of all, the perils of handling dangerous explosives.. Some Chinese workers were buried in Boston Bar, Kamloops and other places along the Fraser Canyon where the transcontinental railroad was built. The infamous Head-Tax was later legislated into laws that kept more Chinese from coming into Canada amidst waves after waves of anti-Chinese sentiments among a largely European population which went on for decades.
Life For Mile is executive produced by Stephen Chang, a Kung Fu Grandmaster and Hollywood actor (VC Commander in First Blood ” Rambo “) and produced by Ray Van Eng with a script written by Ray Van Eng based on a treatment by Stephen Chang. Mr. Chang also acted in such movies as Double Happiness (1994 – 2 Genies), International Rescue (1990 Hit) Icarus (2010) and TV series such as The X-Files, Twilight Zone, Kung Fu – TLC (1996 Warner Bros.) Psych (2011), The Evidence (2006) and dozens of other productions. Mr. Chang has spent the last 35+ years in conceiving this movie after he met the real-life character, a Chinese railroad worker named Ming, in the early 1970s who told Chang the true-life story that is now being produced as a feature film planned for a world-wide theatrical release on the big screen.
For the latest updates and info, please visit the – Life For Mile Facebook page
Stephen Chang, Actor/Executive Producer IMDB Page
Ray Van Eng, Producer/Writer – Vancouver21
Phone: (604) 876-4038
Phone: (604) 354-7181
2 Water Street, Vancouver BC
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