299 Queen Street West (2023) User Reviews

Well done... mostly

[jellopuke · 7/10 · 28 November 2023]

A great look at the history and era of MuchMusic with lots of clips and memories from the VJ's (many of them, a few big exceptions... Ed the Sock, Rachel Perry, Bradford Howe, etc) Lots of looks at bands in their infancy and coming back later, lots of performance clips, lots of talk about how important the channel was.

BUT I felt like it vastly overstated the presence of rap and hip hop and completely ignored the Can-Rock boom of the 90's. So many bands in Canada were made by the station in that time (Our Lady Peace, I Mother Earth, Tea Party, Watchmen, Headstones, Sloan, Age of Electric, etc.) that were never brought up or shown. A couple of brief Tragically Hip clips don't make up for something that was so big and more importantly, CANADIAN. It was example prime of how the station mattered to the country. Also, no mention of the two Coast music scene shows, and very little about metal.

I totally understand that you can't fit it all in or be all things to all people, but the Can-Rock snub was glaring.

Otherwise a very fun and worth watching doc!

Fun ride down memory lane with glaring omissions.

[cmcclenahan · 4/10 · 19 December 2023]

Sean Menard joyously captures the glorious, chaotic beginnings of MuchMusic, Canada's arguably superior answer to America's MTV.

There's more focus on American bands here than Canadian ones- which I get if you want this aired in the states which Menard obviously does.

Besides Canadian bands being ignored, there were many glaring VJ omissions from this "documentary", none more so than eliminating/gaslighting me as the first female VJ from MuchMusic history.

After a year long search, I was hired in February of 1985 as the first woman VJ at MuchMusic. I was thrilled and honored to have been chosen for this coveted role. It was fun and challenging, I got great reviews, a ton of wonderful press and lots of fan mail.

Erica Ehm, a receptionist at Much when I started and a consulting producer on this film - whose uncle Moses Znaimer owned the station - started 2 months after I did. This "documentary" makes no mention of me and claims Erica was the first woman VJ at Much. How this is legal I don't know but I don't wish anyone the humiliating experience of sitting at a movie premiere at Roy Thompson Hall and having your pioneering credit taken away from you and claimed by the woman who started after you - a woman who claims to empower other women. It was shocking and I felt like I was in an episode of the Twilight Zone.

Erica had interviewed me a year previously on her podcast "The Reinvention Of The VJ" and told me about the documentary and said everyone would be included if only in clips.

I flew up to support the doc and was astonished at the disrespect and elimination of me and my contribution to MuchMusic.

It's 2023, and Sean Menard and Erica Ehm have no problems gaslighting, ignoring and demeaning women and their accomplishments. Shame on them.

Indeed Erica delighted in all the attention she got from the cross country film tour. I spoke to her afterwards to voice my shock, anger, disbelief and sadness at my omission. She blamed the director and promised me she would mention me at future screenings - which she of course did not.

Narcissism is alive and well in Canada.

They should re-title this movie "All About Erica"