‘It had this incredible magic to it’: Why Sean Menard focused on MuchMusic for new documentary

Making it's Canadian debut on Sept. 22, ‘299 Queen Street West’ features a mix of archival footage and new interviews.

If you grew up in the ’80s and ’90s, you spent some time with MuchMusic. The 24-hour music channel launched in 1984, and featured videos across genres, as well as artist spotlights and live performances.

But that version of the channel is now long gone. An ancestor, Much, still exists on TV, but includes no music programming. That’s left a hole in the hearts of many who loved it and remember it fondly — both for what it was, and the era it represents.

Enter director Sean Menard and 299 Queen Street West, a documentary set to pay homage to MuchMusic and the people who made it work for so long despite long odds.

For the film, Menard chose to lean into archival footage to capture the spirit of the channel, and intermix it with new interviews from the VJs who spoke every day to viewers across Canada, including Erica Ehm, Sook-Yin Lee, and Michael Williams.

”The film is two hours and visually it’s just archives. And we hear from the VJs,” Menard says. “That allows you to transport back to that time and experience it in a more meaningful way that recreates the experience of watching [the channel].”

The film makes its Canadian debut at the Roy Thomson Hall on Fri., Sept. 22. Ahead of the US premiere at SXSW, we spoke to Menard about his personal connection to MuchMusic, how the film came together, and the iconic building at the heart of it.

(Note: This interview has been edited for length and clarity.)

First off, why did you choose 299 Queen Street West as the title of the film? What is it about that address that resonates?

Sean Menard: To me, I don’t really know too many films that have had an address as a title. And I felt that that address in particular is one of the most famous — if not the most famous address— in the country because it was on a network where they were constantly promoting it.

And for those that know, they knew that that was where MuchMusic was located. So, yeah, I just felt like I didn’t want to have that title of, you know, The MuchMusic Story or Official Documentary, and, right or wrong, it just felt like it rolled off the tongue, and I thought it would look cool on a poster.

I mean, I couldn’t tell you what the address of MTV was. Did anything came up in the shooting of the film about why this address made it into the public consciousness the way it did?

Menard: Yeah. It felt as I got towards the end of making the film, it kind of seemed to me the main character ends up being the building. Right? The building ends up having this life and this magic and this aura. If you were lucky enough to be around 299 Queen St. W. in the ’80s or ’90s, it had this energy.

I give a lot of credit to Moses Znaimer, who revolutionized how television was made and consumed and broadcasted to people. It was a building that took away the barrier between audience and production, if that makes sense. And he opened up the windows, and he allowed people to come in, and it was this living, breathing organism.

So it just seemed like anytime I can get those nice, wide shots of the building, it was just so unique.

You bring up MTV, but other studios are always almost separated from the audience. And this building at the corner of Queen and John was the opposite. And it was all about, “Come on down and be a part of it.”

And in looking at the film through a 2023 lens, it seems even crazier that this existed — this period of time of this incredible, trend-setting, boundary-breaking, no-holds-barred, no-scripts, no-budget television. That was revolutionary.

Growing up in the ’90s, I had a connection to The Countdown, Big Shiny Tunes CDs …

Menard: (laughs) Dance Mix.

Dance Mix! Right. The Wedge. And on and on. What was your relationship with MuchMusic before all this began?

Menard: Growing up as a viewer, I got into MuchMusic real young — the benefit of having older sisters, you know. Elementary school, middle school, high school. So it was a good decade of watching the channel in the mid ’90s to late ’90s. So it was as a fan, and the part that really stood out to me the most was that energy of, or anticipation of, “I don’t know what I’m gonna hear or see next.” It’s gonna be all sorts of different types of music.

I guess that was timing, right? You had the rise of hip hop into mainstream. You had, you know, The Wedge of alternative and grunge music starting out. You had electronic music doing its thing. So you were exposed to all these different types of music, which you just — I don’t know — it seems that current days you don’t get that as much. The charts were very diverse musically, and you experienced that when you watched the channel.

So you had this existing relationship with MuchMusic. How did the decision come about to make a film about it?

Menard: I think it was a film that I wanted to see. And the best part about being a filmmaker is when you wanna see something and you can’t, you get to create it yourself.

So it was first and foremost trying to scratch my own itch and recognizing that it didn’t exist and trying to be very creative and persistent. I mean, it took me about six years of trying to make this film — trying to find financing, trying to get permission for the footage from the rights holders. Eventually, during COVID and being unable to travel, I decided it was — you know, you get almost like a now-or-never kind of mindset. “Life is short — let’s make this.”

And so I decided to put my house up, self-finance it, take a risk, and move forward. I just started interviewing a bunch of the VJs. I put together a trailer and then sent it over to the rights holders at Bell Media. And to their credit, they jumped on board and gave me full, full unprecedented access to their archives and library, which is full of gold.

Oftentimes for a documentary I can imagine gathering interview subjects and getting them to talk is one of the most difficult things. Was it difficult to track down the people you wanted to talk to for this? Or were people eager to get on the record?

Menard: It was a mixed bag. There was definitely a lot of hesitation from some because many have tried to make a film about this subject, but nothing came of it. And it was a very personal time for a lot of them. I mean, it was certainly the peak of their Canadian celebrities, so to speak. So for them to sit down and share those moments and those memories, you had to really earn their trust and have a clear vision and and let them know why you’re doing this.

And for most, especially the VJs from the ’80s, I was very honest. I mean, when I called Michael Williams, I told him, “I didn’t know who you were until I was researching this project. I thought Master T had created Rap City.” Because that was my relationship with that show. So I said, “That’s exactly why you need to do this, because I wanna change that.”

I think that is part of the problem up here in Canada is a lot of times we don’t celebrate our past, or our incredible accomplishments, as much as we should. It was a shame to me that these types of trailblazers were not getting their proper due and respect. If I don’t know about them, then younger generations certainly won’t know about them. And so that was really the impetus for trying to change that and preserve this.

What else did you learn while you were making the film? Were there things that you were surprised by?

Menard: I was definitely surprised about the lack of experience the VJs had. I just assumed that they were seasoned television veterans, but across the board none of them had experience. None of them had people in their ear telling them what to say. They had to go on live.

I also — just from making a film in a modern era — I was really amazed by the amount of attention and focus the audience had on these big mega stars. These artists, these global icon in the music world, when they’re being interviewed, you see a bunch of teenagers without cell phones and they’re really transfixed hanging on to every line. And you start thinking about it and you realize, well, it’s because that was the only way that they got to hear from them. They were not very accessible, and especially not as people in the spotlight are now.

And it was the same for viewers at home. It is live. “I gotta put in my VHS to record this — not because I’m missing it, but because I wanna watch it multiple times. Otherwise I can never see it again.” So when we have these fleeting moments, they really call your attention to “It’s happening,” or, “If you miss it, you miss it.” So it had this incredible magic to it.

Last question for you, Sean — thank you so much for your time here. You’re premiering at SXSW. What do you plan or hope for for the film after that?

Menard: Obviously the hope would be a large Canadian premiere on the biggest platform this country has to offer, which happens to be a certain festival in September in the city…. I don’t know if I can get in. I hope I can.

But if not, I’m going to be taking this film across the country on a theatrical tour in the fall. And I’m gonna go coast to coast a couple nights in every major city, and I’m gonna bring some of the stars of the film along with me and create a real special event to bring out that sense of community that people had when they watched MuchMusic.

And then from there, it’ll be streaming on Crave.

I could see the Toronto event for that tour being a really hot ticket.

Menard: I honestly — I hope so. It’s great that it’s premiering in America at one of the largest festivals in the U.S. It gives us a pat on the back to say that our stories have global interest.

But at the end of the day, Canadians wanna know when they can see it. And I really hope that the VJs get their moment of being on the other side of the red carpet and are celebrated properly. So all I can really do in these interviews is mention that hope.

This is an updated version of an article originally published in March 2023.

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