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Merri Cyr
Lilith Fair: Building a Mystery
Tv Film
Toronto International Film Festival 2025 Will Premiere Documentaries About 'Degrassi' and Lilith Fair Featuring Drake and Sarah McLachlan
The two documentaries are a part of TIFF's 50th anniversary celebrations in the Gala and Special Presentations sections.
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Classic Canadian content is taking this year's Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) documentary scene by storm.
Today (July 21), TIFF announced this year's Gala and Special Presentations programmes set to premiere this September for its 50th edition. The two lists include a couple of much-anticipated documentaries highlighting Sarah McLachlan's iconic Lilith Fair music festival and the beloved teen drama, Degrassi.
Lilith Fair: Building a Mystery, directed by Ally Pankiw (I Used to Be Funny, Black Mirror), will have its world premiere at TIFF. According to CBC, which commissioned the doc, the 99-minute flick "tells the story of the groundbreaking music festival featuring only women artists, started by Canadian singer-songwriter Sarah McLachlan and her team in the late 1990s.”
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The Halifax native first launched Lilith Fair in 1996 as a four-date test to oppose the prevailing industry wisdom that limited women from playing together on a concert bill and getting back-to-back airplay on the radio. The festival lasted four years, ending in 1999.
Made with the "full support and authorization" of McLachlan, the doc will draw from more than 600 hours of never-before-seen archival footage as well as new interviews and stories from fans, festival organizers, and artists such as Bonnie Raitt, Sheryl Crow, Erykah Badu, Natalie Merchant, Mýa, Jewel, Indigo Girls, Emmylou Harris, Brandi Carlile and Olivia Rodrigo.
“I want to give a deeper understanding of the festival to the young female, non-binary and queer musicians and music fans who picked up a guitar or tickets to a concert for the first time because Lilith showed them how,” shared Pankiw in a press release.
On the Special Presentation side, the world premiere of Degrassi: Whatever It Takes will go behind the scenes of one of Canada’s top teen dramas — and yes, it will feature Drake, who appeared on Degrassi: The Next Generation from 2001-2009, playing the much-memed role of Jimmy Brooks.
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The film is directed by Lisa Rideout, andthe logline reads: "Superstar rapper Drake looks back on his Degrassi era alongside the franchise’s creators, stars, and superfans in this engaging history of the Canadian show that changed teen TV."
Additionally, Toronto will get a first look at Baz Luhrmann’s EPiC: Elvis Presley in Concert and Sacrifice, an action comedy starring brat singer Charli xcx.
TIFF 2025 runs from September 4-14.
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