299 Queen Street West | |
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Directed by | Sean Menard |
Produced by | Sean Menard Molly Ye |
Edited by | Sean Menard |
Music by | Tom Caffey |
Production company | Sean Menard Productions |
Release date |
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Running time | 118 minutes |
Country | Canada |
Language | English |
299 Queen Street West is a 2023 Canadian documentary film, directed, produced, and edited by Sean Menard.
The film chronicles the early history of MuchMusic, a music television channel headquartered at 299 Queen Street West in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The voices of VJs like Rick Campanelli, Sook-Yin Lee, Nam Kiwanuka, and George Stroumboulopoulos are featured in the film. Menard said, "I wanted to recreate the experience both for viewers who grew up with it and for those who have no clue what MuchMusic was. I wanted them to be immersed in that channel and the best way to do that is to live in the space and the world of the archives and not cut back and forth to on-camera interviews." [1]
The film premiered at the South by Southwest film festival in March 2023. [2] [3] It later premiered at Roy Thomson Hall in Toronto in September 2023. [3] [4]
It was scheduled to premiere on January 26, 2024 on Crave, owned by Much's current parent company Bell Media. [5] However, its release was indefinitely delayed due to copyright issues involving the music video clips seen in the film. [6] [7]
The film toured across Canada in the following cities:
September 22, Toronto, ON - Roy Thomson Hall
October 17, Montréal, QC - Railto Theatre
October 18, Saint John, NB - Imperial Theatre
October 24, Charlottetown, PE - Sobey Family Theatre
October 25, Halifax, NS - Rebecca Cohn Auditorium
October 28, Ottawa, ON - Bytowne Cinema
November 1, Calgary, AB - Jack Singer Concert Hall
November 4, Hamilton, ON - FirstOntario Concert Hall
November 5, Windsor, ON - Chrysler Theatre
November 8, Edmonton, AB - Winspear Centre
November 13, Regina, SK - Conexus Arts Centre
November 24, Vancouver, BC - Vancouver Playhouse
November 25, Victoria, BC - Royal Theatre
November 27, Winnipeg, MB - Centennial Concert Hall
The Tragically Hip, often referred to simply as the Hip, was a Canadian rock band formed in Kingston, Ontario in 1984, consisting of vocalist Gord Downie, guitarist Paul Langlois, guitarist Rob Baker, bassist Gord Sinclair, and drummer Johnny Fay. They released 13 studio albums, one live album, one EP, and over 50 singles over a 33-year career. Nine of their albums have reached No. 1 on the Canadian charts. They have received numerous Canadian music awards, including 17 Juno Awards. Between 1996 and 2016, the Tragically Hip were the best-selling Canadian band in Canada and the fourth best-selling Canadian artist overall in Canada.
CHUM Limited was a Canadian media company based in Toronto, Ontario in operation from 1945 to 2007. The company was founded in 1945 as York Broadcasters Limited when it launched CHUM-AM 1050 but was acquired by salesman Allan Waters in 1954. CHUM had expanded to and owned 33 radio stations across Canada under its CHUM Radio Network division and also owned other radio stations.
Much is a Canadian English language discretionary specialty channel owned by BCE Inc. through its Bell Media subsidiary that airs programming aimed at teenagers and young adults. It is headquartered at 299 Queen Street West in what was once called the MuchMusic World Headquarters.
299 Queen Street West, also known as Bell Media Queen Street or Bell Media Studios, is the headquarters of the television/radio broadcast hub of Bell Canada's media unit, Bell Media, and is located at the intersection of Queen Street West and John Street in Downtown Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The building previously served as the headquarters of CTVglobemedia until Bell Canada acquired CTV again in 2011 as well as CHUM Television, a division of CHUM Limited, until CTV acquired CHUM in 2007, and was once known as the CHUM-City Building. It is now head offices and downtown Toronto studios for Bell Media.
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