On June 15, 2011, we witnessed Vancouverites’ capacity for anarchy. Hours after the Vancouver Canucks lost Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final, there was panic in the streets, shattered glass on the sidewalks, and smoke and pepper spray in the air as rioters left police cars ablaze and laid waste to blocks of downtown. As thousands of smartphone photos were posted online in the wake of the mayhem, social media platforms became the equivalent of old-fashioned “Wanted” posters. It turned out that concerned citizens’ handheld devices had unwittingly turned them into Big Brother.
In this absorbing documentary, Kathleen S. Jayme (The Grizzlie Truth) and Asia Youngman revisit the events of that chaotic night through interviews with the likes of Roberto Luongo, Jon Ronson, and Alexandra Samuel, and track down several of the then-young offenders who became the poster children for the riots and paid mightily for their misdeeds. In doing so, they make the compelling argument that mob mentalities flourish as readily and destructively online as they do in the streets.
October 2 & 5: Q&A with directors Kathleen S. Jayme & Asia Youngman & crew
Canada
2023
Special Presentations
English
Coarse Language, Violence, Nudity
Book Tickets
Indigenous & Community Access
Indigenous Access Tickets Community Access Tickets Ticket Donation Requests
Credits
Executive Producer
Asia Youngman, Kathleen S. Jayme, Marsha Cooke, John Dahl, Rob King, Brian Lockhart, Burke Magnus
Producer
Michael Tanko Grand, James Brown, Gentry Kirby, Mike Johnston
Cinematography
Kaayla Whachell
Editor
Greg Ng, Katie Chipperfield
Production Design
Ryan MacInnes
Original Music
Taylor Swindells, Jordan Klassen
Art Director
Matt Carson
Directors
Kathleen S. Jayme
Kathleen Jayme is an award-winning Filipina-Canadian filmmaker. Her short Finding Big Country won the Audience Award at VIFF (2018), as did her first feature film The Grizzlie Truth (winner of the 2019 TIFF Pitch This! Competition) three years later. Her sophomore feature (co-directed with Asia Youngman), I’m Just Here for the Riot, is an ESPN 30/30 that had its World Premiere at Hot Docs 2023. Kathleen has gone on to direct for the NBA, CBC, NFB, and ESPN.
Filmography: Finding Big Country (2018); The Grizzlie Truth (2022)
Asia Youngman
Asia Youngman is an award-winning Indigenous filmmaker from Vancouver, Canada. Some of her previous short films include This Ink Runs Deep (2019) and N’xaatikw (2022) which both premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival. Her first feature-length documentary I’m Just Here For The Riot (2023) is part of ESPN’s acclaimed 30 for 30 series.
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
Blue Heron
In the late 1990s, eight-year-old Sasha and her Hungarian immigrant family relocate to a new home on Vancouver Island. Their fresh start is interrupted by increasingly dangerous behaviour from Jeremy, the family’s oldest child.
How Deep Is Your Love
Filmmaker Eleanor Mortimer tags along with a team of oceanographers and marine biologists as they survey the Clarion-Clipperton fracture, one of the most remote spots on Earth, home to a dazzling array of unknown creatures.
Omaha
Cole Webley's road movie about a single dad taking off with his two young kids is really just a fragment of a story, yet it unfolds with such authentic lyricism it lands with a heartbreaking emotional wallop.
The Last One for the Road
Two middle-aged drunkards drive across the Veneto region on a freewheeling bender, taking a young college student along for the ride. A celebration of the spirit of drink and the kinds of stories told around a table of old friends and too much wine.
The Mother and the Bear
Johnny Ma’s film stars Kim Ho-jung as a Korean woman who flies to Winnipeg when her immigrant daughter is hospitalized there. This crowd-pleaser plays up cultural differences to hilarious effect and offers a touching take on mother-daughter tension.
