TORONTO -- Despite the strong anti-U.S. government sentiments in his new film, Greendale, Neil Young says he has never seriously considered moving back to Canada.

"Sometimes -- but I'm not really concerned with what country I live in, I'm more concerned with being a citizen of the planet," the Ontario-born singer-songwriter said at a filmfest press conference yesterday.

Young, 57, has lived in California for decades.

"My heart still is in Canada but I don't have to physically be here to be a Canadian," he said.

In response to an interviewer's question, Young said he was proud of Prime Minister Jean Chretien's decision to withhold Canada from the U.S-led war in Iraq. "Yes, I'm happy to be a Canadian when people see that kind of thing," he said.

Greendale is the visual complement to Young's latest CD, or "musical novel," of the same name. It features the artist directing and filming friends and family -- including his wife Pegi --who act out scenarios and lip-synch to Young's music.

The story follows the tragedy that befalls the fictional Green family living in a coastal California small town as a metaphor for what's going on in the U.S. today.

"There's a whole new moral value now in the United States and it's basically, 'North America is kind of changing everything,' " Young said. "It's just this new, 'You have to adapt' (mentality) to this change. And there's a lot of people who don't want to. There's a lot of unhappy, unsettled feelings about the world."

Young admitted he finds it tough to read the newspaper and stay positive. "I sometimes do get a little depressed, and I get upset that things are so off. A couple of years ago, it looked like we were finally getting a grip on something ... And then suddenly we're thrown into an SUV with a drunk driver and it's completely out of control."

Young, who came to town with his sometime band Crazy Horse to perform a second engagement of his Greendale concert at the Air Canada Centre on Thursday, stuck around for several days to promote Greendale, slotted in the Visions program at the fest. A normally reticent interview subject, Young said he wanted to promote his film.

"It goes with the neighbourhood," he said. "And although this is totally out of my league, I made the commitment to do this because we made such a commitment in making the film. I'm not just representing myself, so it's easier for me to do it."

In addition to the Greendale film, CD, and concert, there's the DVD and a coming TV special -- to air on PBS in November.

For the movie, Young said he purposely used a $500 hand-held German Super 8 underwater camera for the amateurish look, which is both grainy and badly lit.

"By looking at the picture you can tell that I'm not too up-to-date with the newest technology," Young said to laughs. "I don't like things to be too straight, too on-the-mark."

Young makes a single cameo as a Wayne Newton character.

"I think the thing that keeps it from being a music video -- thank God -- is that I'm not lip-synching. Everybody else but me lip-synchs. And to me, that's golden. Okay? I love that."