He soon became frustrated by the bureaucratic process of film funding in Canada and chronic problems with distribution as well as a string of box office disappointments.

"[7] In a 2011 interview with Andrea Nemetz in the Halifax Chronicle Herald, Shebib said: "I was aware of migratory experiences – like the Okies in California in the dust bowl.

Over the next five years, Shebib found his way into the Canadian film industry and quickly established himself, reflecting on his decision to return in 1970:There's more of a chance here... and it's much easier to get started.

[14]Shebib directed, shot, and edited several award-winning, "lucid" documentaries for the National Film Board of Canada, CTV Television Network, and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation in the 1960s, notably his thesis film, The Duel (1962),[15] Surfin' (1964), Satan's Choice (1965), an inside view of the motorcycle club,[16] and Good Times, Bad Times (1969), before turning to feature filmmaking.

Kael wrote that the movie showed up the ostensibly forced sincerity and perceived honesty of the films of John Cassavetes.

In 1998, a DVD copy was struck from the master negative by the Toronto International Film Festival in conjunction with Telefilm Canada.

Following the success of Goin' Down the Road, Shebib expressed a preference for making dramatic rather than documentary films going forward,[21] and directed a mix of commercially unsuccessful genre films beginning with the teen comedy Rip-Off (1971) and the critically acclaimed Between Friends (1973), a somber story of a pair of aspiring surfers who plan a mining robbery in Northern Ontario that goes wrong.

[24] There was some talk of Shebib directing Rob Stefaniuk in a film called Bart Fargo, an homage to La Petomane, in 2004 and 2005, but it is unclear as to whether it was made, completed, and released.

Shebib watched Turner Classic Movies "religiously", and after John Ford, his favourite directors were Frank Capra, William Wellman, Howard Hawks, Marcel Carné, David Lean ("especially his early stuff") and F.W.

[8] His dislike for the styles (and subjects) employed by contemporary films was matched by his "seething disdain of critics" and a "testy" ambivalence with respect to the quality of his own work (he called himself "lazy and sloppy" in the execution of his work):[23] Pevere's assessment: "Shebib is an old-fashioned traditionalist adrift in a modernist cultural movement, and therefore as much an outsider as anybody he'd make movies about.

"[8] His feelings of ambivalence extend to a "reluctance to accept being the designated representative of Canadian anything":[8] "I don't like the idea of suddenly being used as a model for Canada or something.

"[7] Geoff Pevere remarked that almost without exception, the documentary shorts dealt with "isolated individuals or groups existing on the periphery of mainstream society", sometimes as a lifestyle choice as in Surfin' and Satan's Choice (1966), but also as "a forced condition dictated by an unfeeling, ungrateful society", referencing Good Times, Bad Times and the later We've Come Along Way Together, "a poignant, compassionate exploration of old age in a world busting its ass to stay young and beautiful.

[38] Piers Handling noted that Shebib was so preoccupied with male bonding that women were absent from his work prior to the start of his feature film career, and likewise identified a tension between the desire to transcend boundaries and existential limits.

[31] Sam Weisberg asserts that "all of his films share a common interest in, and empathy with, the extraordinary aspirations of ordinary people," whether "goofy teenagers" trying to make it as a rock band (Rip-Off), a "bored businessman" who takes up jogging (Second Wind), or an Italian prisoner of war "itching to climb Mount Kenya" (The Ascent).

[24] Shebib still considered himself a sociologist at heart, and suggested his films had a strong sociological basis,[8] incorporating social commentary, human relationships being a frequent theme.

[15][23] However, he never considered himself an intellectual: he "didn't talk like one"; not that he was anti-intellectual, just "anti-bullshit": politically "liberal" but not laissez-faire or "bleeding heart", and with "socialist leftist leanings", but believing that Marxism is "just another form of bullshit", not that capitalists were "any better".

Within a few years, Shebib's body of work had made him a "unique and recognizable film presence" in Canada and beyond, "verging on international stature.

"[23] Scholar Katherine A. Roberts remarks how, since the release of Shebib's film, "numerous Canadian filmmakers have sought to explore the mobility/masculinity nexus as it relates to landscape and the national narrative.

"[42] Sam Weisberg opines that, with the exception of Between Friends (1973), none of Shebib's feature films made after Goin' Down the Road have quite the same resonance.

[24] Despite his artistic vision and technical skills, a perception grew that Shebib was "his own worst publicity agent", complaining regularly that his scripts were weak or else that he had difficulties with actors.

"[36] When Geoff Pevere interviewed him in 2011, then aged 73, he found Shebib "generous, courteous, and thoughtful", but he had certainly not mellowed: "He can't help himself, even if it has cost him dearly in professional terms.

He also "hung out" with Jim Morrison during this period,[8] and one summer Beach Boys guitarist Al Jardine stayed with him and his roommates, sharing a love of Gilbert and Sullivan musical numbers.

[27] On his return to Toronto, Shebib met and befriended writer and editor William Fruet when he began working for the CBC on The Way It Is.