In celebration of The Tragically Hip’s 40th anniversary, the quintessential Canadian band receives a deserved tribute in a docuseries helmed by Mike Downie, brother of the band’s late frontman Gord Downie. VIFF is honoured to have Mike and The Tragically Hip – Rob Baker, Johnny Fay, Paul Langlois, and Gord Sinclair – join us for this special evening as we share the first two episodes of this definitive series, a love story between a band and the country they call home.
Drawing from archival and personal footage and featuring previously unseen performances, unreleased music, and unprecedented access to The Hip, No Dress Rehearsal is far from hagiographic. Instead, the series candidly and compellingly documents four decades of hits and misses, friendship and frustration, triumph and tragedy. Generous and unguarded, The Hip proves themselves to truly be a band of brothers. And they’re every bit as captivating onscreen as they were onstage.
Q&A with director Michael Downie and Gordon Sinclair, Jake Gold, Johnny Fay, Leslie Gailbraith, Paul Langlois & Robert Baker
Media Partner
Canada
2024
English
Book Tickets
Indigenous & Community Access
Credits & Director
Executive Producer
Jake Gold
Producer
Bryn Hughes, Kim Creelman, Dave Wells, Kalin Moon, Mike Downie, Rob Baker, Johnny Fay, Paul Langlois, Gord Sinclair
Cinematography
Chris Romeike
Editor
Peter Denes
Original Music
The Tragically Hip
Mike Downie
Mike Downie is a multi-award-winning documentary filmmaker and co-founder of the Gord Downie & Chanie Wenjack Fund. Downie is a writer, director, and producer of numerous documentaries including Finding the Secret Path (2018), Invasion of the Brain Snatchers (2013), and The Hockey Nomad (2003). Before his career in film and television, Downie worked as a deep shaft miner in Northern Ontario; a medical researcher at McGill University; a junior economist in Toronto; and as a windsurfing instructor in the US Virgin Islands. He holds a BSc from Queen’s University and an MBA from York University’s Schulich School of Business.
Photo by Ian Patterson
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
Incandescence
Filmed across the Okanagan before, during and after several devastating fires by veteran non-fiction filmmakers Nova Ami and Velcrow Ripper (Metamorphosis; ScaredSacred), Incandescence is a mesmerizing cinematic contemplation of the power of wildfires.
Sweet Summer Pow Wow
After the local hit The Great Salish Heist, writer-director Darrell Dennis proves his versatility with this charming love story about two young people who meet cute on BC's Pow Wow circuit. Her mom wants her to become a lawyer, but Jinny loves to dance...
That They May Face the Rising Sun
John and Kate have moved from London to a farm in Ireland, to the bemusement of the locals. This lyrical Irish reverie taps deep wells of feeling in the stuff of everyday life.
The Hermit of Treig
In this rather special film, Lizzie MacKenzie trains her camera on octogenarian Ken Smith, who has lived more than four decades off-the-grid on the shores of Loch Treig, in the Scottish Highlands. This cheerful hermit is a personable storyteller.
Secret Mall Apartment
The stranger-than-fiction true story of a group of artists who built and furnished a hidden apartment inside a mall, remaining undetected for years. This is an absurdly fun and surprisingly profound film about gentrification and art.