299 Queen Street West (film)

Last updated
299 Queen Street West
299 Queen Street West poster.jpg
Film poster
Directed bySean Menard
Produced bySean Menard
Molly Ye
Edited bySean Menard
Music byTom Caffey
Production
company
Sean Menard Productions
Release date
Running time
118 minutes
CountryCanada
LanguageEnglish

299 Queen Street West is a 2023 Canadian documentary film, directed, produced, and edited by Sean Menard.

Contents

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]

Release

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]

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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. Prior to 2013, the channel was officially known as MuchMusic, though "Much" has been the branding most commonly seen on-air since 1997.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">299 Queen Street West</span> Headquarters of Bell Media in Toronto

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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Sook-Yin Lee is a Canadian broadcaster, musician, film director, actress and multimedia artist. She is a former MuchMusic VJ and a former radio host on CBC Radio. She has appeared in films, notably in the John Cameron Mitchell movie Shortbus.

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References

  1. "MuchMusic Documentary '299 Queen Street West' Traces How a Renegade Canadian Channel Took on MTV and Won (For a While)". Variety . March 13, 2023. Retrieved October 10, 2023.
  2. "How the director of the new MuchMusic documentary found gold in a treasure trove of archives". CBC.ca . March 16, 2023. Retrieved October 10, 2023.
  3. 1 2 "MuchMusic Documentary '299 Queen Street West' Sets Toronto Premiere". Exclaim! . April 24, 2023. Retrieved October 10, 2023.
  4. "'Spirit of MuchMusic' still alive at doc premiere with former VJs in attendance". Global News . September 23, 2023. Retrieved October 10, 2023.
  5. "New on Crave: January 2024". MobileSyrup. December 26, 2023. Retrieved December 30, 2023.
  6. "MuchMusic Documentary '299 Queen West' Faces Legal Challenge From Universal Music Canada". Billboard Canada. October 19, 2023. Retrieved January 30, 2024.
  7. "MuchMusic doc pulled from Crave months after director says he clashed with labels". CBC.ca . January 29, 2024. Retrieved February 12, 2024.