On Friday night at Hot Docs cinema a new documentary will premiere, looking back at one of the most iconic Toronto bands of the early aughts, Broken Social Scene.
The film, It's All Gonna Break, profiles the ensemble indie rock group’s rise from sweaty shows at Toronto’s Lee’s Palace to playing before tens of thousands at Lollapalooza in the summer of 2006.
Part love letter to a long-gone Toronto and part back-stage pass to a band in its honeymoon phase, the film does not dwell on the group’s hairiest fights or break-ups and reunions.
Instead, friend of the band and film director Stephen Chung said he felt compelled to focus on the highs.
“I wanted to make a film about [having] the time of our lives,” he told TorontoToday.
“A lot of goodness was happening … this is just a pure time of joy and innocence … and that’s what I wanted to put out in the world: goodness.”
To create the film, Chung, who met the bandmates in the late 90s, whittled-down hundreds of hours of tape he shot of the group recording, playing shows and spending time together.
While he captured the footage, he said he tried to be “as invisible as possible.”
A city that birthed a sprawling band
The film begins with scenes of the Toronto which gave birth to the band.
It was the early 2000s, when rent cost $500, people went to Blockbuster for their movies and a little-known actor named Aubrey Graham (Drake) was filming a television show called Degrassi.
Broken Social Scene lead vocalist Brendan Canning recalled, in an interview with TorontoToday, that it was a time of frequent visits to Queen Street West art galleries and playing shows at venues like Wavelength Music, Sneaky Dee’s and Soundscapes, a now-defunct record store on College Street.
“It was freedom,” he said. “It felt like we were on a righteous path.”
While many bands are rooted in the musical symbiosis of a handful of talented stars, Broken Social Scene was built upon the connection of a horde of friends.
Over the years, the group had more than two dozen members, including several musicians who went on to significant success with other acts, including Leslie Feist (Feist), Emily Haines (Metric) and Amy Millan (Stars).
Lead vocalist Kevin Drew told TorontoToday the ensemble approach allowed the group to make the best music they could — and to have the best possible time.
The film shows footage from those days in Toronto’s Little Portugal, where bandmates and friends crowded into a house lived in by Drew and fellow bandmate Jo-ann Goldsmith to eat, drink and make music together.
To earn enough money for rent, Canning said he and Drew worked odd jobs, like bartending, DJ-ing or helping to produce music videos.
“There was space for community, back then,” said Drew.
“Inevitably, we just ended up as a platform and a stage to just push people further.”
Playing to tens of thousands
The band’s musical approach, which often featured horns, violin, saxophone and lush vocals, resonated with audiences.
In 2003, their sophomore album got a glowing review from the music news website Pitchfork, leading to sold-out shows during a subsequent tour.
“I've been listening to this disc for months on repeat,” wrote Pitchfork founder Ryan Schreiber. “You Forgot It in People explodes with song after song of endlessly replayable, perfect pop.”
With a readership of over 50,000, this press helped propel a heady ascendancy for the Toronto-based band, including international shows in Scotland, Norway, Germany and beyond.
Despite the group’s success, however, coralling members to play each gig wasn’t always easy.
Over time, members of the ensemble band began touring with other acts or working on their own artistic projects, leading to many substitutions in the band’s line-up.
Chung said that part of why disagreements between bandmates don’t feature more prominently in the movie is not because the group was always “zen,” but because he didn’t capture those moments of chaos on film.
A tell-all is a ‘corny ass look’: Canning
But beyond this technical challenge, Canning and Drew said they had no interest in a tell-all flick, anyway.
“It’s kind of a corny-ass look at the end of the day,” said Canning.
“We’re not Fleetwood Mac. We didn’t do boatloads of cocaine … Everyone can make up their own story, which is kind of more fun at the end of the day,” he said.
Drew agreed and pushed back on the expectation for artists to divulge intimate aspects of their lives.
“You’re forced to give up so much all of the time,” he said.
Drew said intimate details of their lives are in the public realm — they’re just in the music.
He also stressed that the ensemble approach ultimately has benefits for the longevity of their music.
Whereas some groups are defined solely by the people who made up the band, Broken Social Scene’s art is more about the songs themselves, he said.
“I think that’s a great achievement in itself, because it means it can continue … with or without this person or that person.”
A second chance at a reflective film
In the film, Chung narrates how this is his second shot at getting this footage in front of audiences.
When he tried first in the late aughts, bandmates weren’t so keen on the story being shared, feeling like there wasn’t a complete enough arc.
But with more than a decade having passed, the director picked it up again, believing this time that he and the bandmates had the perspective to do it right.
Tickets to the film premiere happening at 7:00 p.m. on Friday at Hot Docs are $13. The movie will be followed by a question and answer session with members of Broken Social Scene.
Fans who miss the launch can catch the film on streaming service Crave, beginning this summer.
Drew said he’s proud of his friend for having finished the project.
“We’re hard on ourselves about endings,” he said. “Getting to an ending is sometimes the greatest achievement that you can have.”
CORRECTION: This story was updated to clarify that Soundscapes was a record shop, not a recording studio.