Iconic Canadian Filmmaker Michael McGowan in a league of his own with “Score: A Hockey Musical”

Newcomer, Toronto's Reid, with TV's George Stroumboulopoulos

I was delighted CIFF’s Opening Gala was family-oriented, as I was accompanied by the lone child in the audience. Here’s his review:

It was an exciting story! Farley (Noah Reid) loved to play hockey with his friends and his journey is about taking a challenge, doing something different and being true to yourself.

It’s really funny because hockey players like to fight but Farley doesn’t, so all kinds of hilarious things happen — which are funnier with the added songs and dancing — this also makes it more interesting. I’m going to recommend it to my friends.

Every Canadian should see it!

Written by Diane Bennett and her 10-year-old son, Christian

The Death That Made The Sex Pistols Famous

The music in the late 70's was so heady it was hard to notice the emergence of Punk from the great slate of Rock - with the Fleetwood Mac album Rumours a fixture on the radio and new bands like Aerosmith, Electric Light Orchestra, Supertramp, Frampton, Foreigner and Heart keeping disco from getting too much airplay.

Punk didn't have the same significance in Canada or the U.S. as it did in the U.K. The climate was different, socio-economically. Times were tough in Britain - meanwhile prosperous Americans weren't complaining. Led Zeppelin was touring the States in 1977, the same year the Sex Pistols released their loud and raucous, anarchist rant against the establishment: "God Save The Queen" (during the Queen's Silver Jubilee week.) It became a smash hit there but, barely blipped on the radar across the Atlantic. After a miserable American tour that ended with guitarist Johnny Rotten leaving the band, the Sex Pistols broke up in early 1978.

The band only really gained mass notoriety when Pistols bassist Sid Vicious was charged with the murder of his co-dependent, heroin addicted girlfriend, Nancy Spungen. He found her dead on the bathroom floor of their room at the infamous Chelsea Hotel in New York City after awaking from a drugged stupor. She had bled to death, having been stabbed once by his knife.

In February 1979, after getting out of Bellevue Hospital where he detoxed and healed from an attempted suicide by slashing his wrists following Nancy's death, Sid (aka John Simon Ritchie) overdosed on heroin and died just days before facing charges in Spungen's murder trial.

Who Killed Nancy? is the documentary from Sex Pistols and Sid Vicious scribe, Alan G. Parker, author of several books. The film proposes a conspiracy theory, as the title suggests. According to CIFF Music on Film Programming Manager, Aubrey McInnis, it's a must-see film for fans and the curious alike. It plays tonight at 9:30, Eau Claire Market - Cineplex Odeon - Screen 2.

(Diane Bennett is covering Events, Headliners & Music on Film)

1994 - The Year Grunge Died & Punk Was Revived

Green Day circa 1994

One Nine Nine Four is about the year Curt Cobain killed himself and the grunge music scene died along with him. Pearl Jam, Bush, Alice In Chains and others evolved out of the post-grunge era, which was then relabeled Alternative. But when one door closes another opens, as the saying goes, and new life was breathed into the Punk scene.

Many called it Pop Punk or Punk Revival. The 70's and 80's Punk movement started with The Ramones, Clash and Sex Pistols influencing the next wave of Punk Rockers (or No Wave as some called it) with bands like the Pixies and Sonic Youth feeding the grunge scene - from Nirvana and Pearl Jam to The Smashing Pumpkins and even The Red Hot Chili Peppers. After Green Day released Dokie in 1994, a new sound emerged with the likes of The Offspring, Bad Religion and Blink 182 rising to the top of the charts.

Australian Director Jai Al-Attas was so inspired by post-punk he started his own label, Below Par Records, as a 16-year old in 2000 (while still in high school) and this film sprang from that passion. He'll be in attendance for the showing of One Nine Nine Four tonight at 7:15 (Eau Claire Market - Cineplex Odeon - Screen 2) to talk about the making of the film, the genre, or how he and Skateboard guru Tony Hawk (narrator) hooked up. Stay for the Q & A.

(Diane Bennett is covering Events, Headliners & Music On Film)

There's more to the picture than meets the eye...

Rock Prophecies sets the bar high for guitarists and the Rock Doc genre alike, bringing a bygone era of seminal superstars back into focus through pictures, music, anecdotes and interviews. Enter the world of the Rock Gods, as seen through the eyes of Robert Knight, fabled photographer of Guitar Legends.

Whether you believe Jeff Beck is best or you're into Kenny Wayne Shepherd (one of the fastest selling white bluesmen since Eric Clapton) there's something for every rock and blues fan in this film. With the price of admission you'll get an all-access backstage pass following Knight, as the protagonist, as he seeks to find the embodiment of his foil (the late, great Stevie Ray Vaughn) in the next generation of guitar virtuosos.

40-years of shooting industry icons sets the tone for the new generation of axe men, like Chris Iorio from Adelita's Way and Sick Puppies' Shimon Moore, blowing across the frets and bending the strings. (Rock 'n Roll will never die!) But it is the phenomenal Tyler Dow Bryant, a Texan born 6-months after the Double Trouble front man’s death, which gives this movie its mystique.

Filmmaker John Chester (Director, Cinematographer and Editor) will be in attendance, along with Knight. Showtime is 7:30 pm at Eau Claire Market - Cineplex Odeon - Screen 5. Afterwards, use your ticket to attend an exclusive CIFF Event, the VW Rock N' Roll Red Carpet Party. Shine up your hobnailed boots and put on your patchwork jeans, or find something fashionably fierce to wear, then let down your hair. As Almost Famous 'band aide' Penny Lane would say: "it's all happening" at the Barley Mill in Eau Claire, following the screening.

(Diane Bennett is covering Events, Headliners & Music On Film)

Timing Is Everything

After snagging free parking near Eau Claire Market, last night, I step out of my car just as two guys walk by. I know them in an instant. The unmistakable black cap and leather jacket was a giveaway as I had, a few nights before, pre-screened Rock Prophecies. It's Robert Knight, Photographer and subject of tonight's Headliner, with Director John Chester.

"Oh man," I blurt, "You guys are my heroes!"

This gets their attention and I introduce myself and my 9-year old son who I am taking to see the animated feature My Dog Tulip, followed by It Might Get Loud (a great film).

"That's my friend Jimmy Page's movie," Knight smiles.

We talk, as we walk, about one of the the film's featured artists, Tyler Dow Bryant, among other things. Knight tells me Bryant has a gig in California Sunday night. He gives me a clue as to where.

"He's playing on the same stage where Jimi Hendrix first played."

I give. My Hendrix Trivia from back when I was younger than my son is not that good.

"The Monterey Pop Festival."

Apparently it's an annual event and still has the same cachet for up and coming artists today. The pair are amazed how everyone in town seems to know who Knight is wherever he goes, indicating the buzz generated by the screening which is a one-night stand followed by the VW sponsored party. We pause outside the door for a picture. My son is short and Robert is tall so you take what you can get. For a picture shot with a 2.0 megapixel phone, it's a pretty good one.

As we ride the escalator up to the theatres, where they have a scheduled sound check for their film, I can't help but mention the similarity to Knight's story and the one told by Cameron Crowe in the fictitious film Almost Famous, about a 15-year old kid named William Miller, played by Patrick Fugit, who is hired by Rolling Stone magazine to tour with, and write about the up and coming rockband Stillwater. The film also stars Kate Hudson as groupie Penny Lane and Billy Crudup as rock star Russel Hammond.

"He ripped me off, man! I got my start 6-years before Led Zeppelin got famous."

Knight is eluding to the comparison of his real-life experience as a young teen wandering into the rock world with a camera and winding up befriending the band members along the way. (Before working in the film industry, Crowe was a contributing editor at Rolling Stone, which he still frequently writes for.*)

After parting company, with a hope to talk again, I feel pretty hip as we walk outside the market doors to get some fresh air. A passerby agrees to take a picture of my son and I as we crouch under one of the door posters which emulates my thoughts.

Then, as if the evening could get more uncanny, a young musician, with a guitar strapped to his back, bursts out of the doors and starts telling me how he just met Knight. His name is James Drolet and the video has the story.

*For more on Crowe/Almost Famous, click: IMDB.

(Diane Bennett is covering Events, Headliners & Music On Film)

It Might Get Loud - A Love Story?

Jack White, Jimmy Page & The Edge star in this movie, which will be different from other Rock Music Documentaries as it is about the relationship these musicians have with their instruments. It Might Get Loud may have three different stories to tell, but there's one reason I can't wait to see this film. It's when the trio finally get together on an empty soundstage, with their pride and joy collection of toys, to swap stories, influences and chord progressions. Showtime tonight is 9:30 pm, Eau Claire Market - Cineplex Odeon - Screen 5.

This will be a welcome angle of trying to get inside the minds of the artists. I remember seeing the Led Zeppelin documentary The Song Remains The Same as a teenager and being awestruck by the concert footage, but the psychedelic dream-like sequences (which were intended to shed light on the bands musical inspiration) were just a distraction. A dozen years later, when the U2 movie Rattle & Hum was released substance was once again lost to style. (A White Stripes film may be forthcoming.)

I think Director Davis Guggenheim (An Inconvenient Truth) will be telling the story he had pitched to him by Producer Thomas Tull. The film ought to be about the process of making music and the paths these artists have taken, plus the dialog they have while sharing their passion for the craft of playing guitar.

(Diane Bennett is covering Events, Headliners & Music On Film)