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
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
The Remarkable Life of Ibelin
Mats Steen, a Norwegian gamer, died of a degenerative muscular disease at the age of 25. His parents mourned what they thought had been a lonely and isolated life, when they started receiving messages from online friends around the world.
Ru + Kim Thúy in Conversation
At ten, Tinh and her family are forced to flee Vietnam and eventually find refuge in wintery but welcoming Quebec. A lyrical, warm adaptation of the award-winning novel by Kim Thúy, who will join us in conversation after the screening.
Janet Planet
For her first film as writer-director, Pulitzer prize-winning playwright Annie Baker gives us a lonely and imaginative 11-year-old, Lacey (Zoe Zigler) besotted with her single mom, Janet (Julianne Nicholson).
