WATCH: The POP Movie, a documentary about the POP Montreal festival

POP Montreal has released The POP Movie, a documentary film chronicling the 2009 edition of the beloved music festival. Directed by Andi State, the film premiered at last year’s edition of POP Montreal and is now available to stream for free via their YouTube channel:

POP Montreal 2009 featured a memorable lineup of talented acts, including Butthole Surfers, Yo La Tengo and Sufjan Stevens, among others. Montreal-based director Andi State had the following to say about her documentary:

“In 2009 I had just finished producing my first feature film, an endeavour that left me broke and disillusioned by the business of cinema. Wanting to get back to basics, I wondered if I could make a film by myself, just me and a camera. I bought a camcorder and a bunch of tapes and started shooting a film on my office-mates, POP Montreal, preparing for that year’s festival.

“I shot 55 hours of footage, recording sound with an H2N recorder, and taught myself to edit, but the film was too big a scope for me. I had to make two other films, with the same camcorder, to be able to return to this one 11 years later.”

POP held a socially distanced festival against all odds last year. Many of the shows were held in limited capacity venues, including a number of outdoor shows. Backxwash, for example, had a show on the rooftop of the Rialto Theatre with distance between each seat and mandatory masks.

This year, POP Montreal will celebrate its 20th edition. The festival is set to be held from Sept. 22–26.

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