''Spirit Unforgettable'' is a 2016 Canadian documentary film, which premiered at the
Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival
The Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival is the largest documentary festival in North America. The event takes place annually in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The 27th edition of the festival took place online throughout May and Jun ...
NOW
Now most commonly refers
to the present time.
Now, NOW, or The Now may also refer to:
Organizations
* Natal Organisation of Women, a South African women's organization
* National Organization for Women, an American feminist organization
* Na ...
'', April 26, 2016. Directed by
Pete McCormack
Pete McCormack (born January 27, 1965) is a Canadian author, filmmaker, screenwriter and musician. He is best known for directing the Academy Award short-listed documentary Facing Ali and the Stephen Leacock Memorial Medal for Humour, Leacock Awa ...
Toronto Sun
The ''Toronto Sun'' is an English-language tabloid format, tabloid newspaper published daily in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The newspaper is one of several ''Sun'' tabloids published by Postmedia Network. The newspaper's offices are located at Pos ...
'', April 29, 2016. the film profiles the Canadian folk rock band
Spirit of the West
Spirit of the West were a Canadian folk rock band from North Vancouver, active from 1983 to 2016. They were popular on the Canadian folk music scene in the 1980s before evolving a blend of hard rock, Britpop, and Celtic folk influences which m ...
in preparation for a 2015 concert at
Massey Hall
Massey Hall is a performing arts auditorium in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Opened in 1894, it is known for its outstanding acoustics and was the long-time hall of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra and the Toronto Mendelssohn Choir. Although original ...
, as part of their farewell tour following lead singer John Mann's diagnosis with
early-onset Alzheimer's disease
Early-onset Alzheimer's disease (EOAD), also called younger-onset Alzheimer's disease (YOAD), is Alzheimer's disease diagnosed before the age of 65. It is an uncommon form of Alzheimer's, accounting for only 5–10% of all Alzheimer's cases. Ab ...
, interspersing the story of his diagnosis and the band's preparations for the concert with a portrait of their overall history.
At the time of the Massey Hall concert, it was possible but not definitive that due to Mann's cognitive decline, the show may have become the band's last concert performance. The band did, however, ultimately perform a few more times following the show, most notably for a three-night series of finale performances at Vancouver's
Commodore Ballroom
Commodore Ballroom is a music venue, dance floor and nightclub located on 800 block of Granville Street in Vancouver, British Columbia. It is regarded as Canada's most influential nightclub, and one of North America's best live music venues. Th ...
in April 2016."The unforgettable spirit of Spirit of the West" '' Q'', May 2, 2016.
Other figures appearing in the film include Mann's wife Jill Daum, an actress and playwright who has written her own theatrical play about Alzheimer's, ''Forget About Tomorrow''; musician
Paul Hyde
Paul Reginald Nelson (born 21 May 1955), known by the stage name Paul Hyde, is a British-born Canadian singer-songwriter.
He co-founded the rock band Payola$ with Bob Rock, serving as the band's main lyricist and vocalist. He later performed and ...
, a longtime friend and early collaborator of the band, who both talks about his relationship with the band and performs a rendition of his song "I Miss My Mind the Most"; Mann and Daum's daughter Hattie Daumann; musician
Craig Northey
Craig Northey (born February 9, 1962) is a Canadian musician and film and TV composer. He is one of the founding members of the band Odds, which released four albums between 1991 and 1996. They were best known for the radio singles " It Falls Apa ...
; the band's manager Janet Forsyth; former band member J. Knutson; and two of Mann's doctors.
McCormack, a longtime friend of the band, invested $100,000 of his own money in the film up front, telling ''
The Globe and Mail
''The Globe and Mail'' is a Newspapers in Canada, Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in Western Canada, western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of more than 6 million in 2024, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on week ...
'' that "I had to go and dive in right away … funding or no funding, because of the disease." The film did later secure funding, including a completion grant from the
Shaw Media
Shaw Media, Inc. was the television broadcasting division of Shaw Communications. It owned the Global Television Network, which broadcasts nationally via 13 television stations, as well as 19 specialty channels including Slice (TV channel), Slice ...
/Hot Docs Fund.
Many critics have singled out the band's live performance of their signature song " Home for a Rest" near the end of the film, which saw the entire audience begin to sing along the moment Mann had a slip in remembering the lyrics, as its life-affirming emotional climax.
The film aired on
HBO Canada
HBO (previously known as HBO Canada, and still referred to as such on social media) is a Canadian premium television network from Crave (formerly The Movie Network), which is owned by Bell Media under license from Warner Bros. Discovery. The c ...
CTV News
CTV News is the news division of the CTV Television Network in Canada. The name ''CTV News'' is also applied as the title of local and regional newscasts on the network's owned-and-operated stations (O&Os), which are closely tied to the nationa ...
, June 28, 2016.
Awards
At the 2016 Vancouver International Film Festival in October 2016, ''Spirit Unforgettable'' won the award for Most Popular Canadian Documentary (based on audience balloting).