Broken Social Scene Doc ‘It’s All Gonna Break’ Traces Band’s History

A new documentary about the history of the indie rockers Broken Social Scene examines how they broke out of Toronto’s social scene onto the world stage. The film, It’s All Gonna Break, will premiere at the Woodstock Film Festival on Oct. 16; ticketing details are on the fest’s website. More festival screenings are expected in the future.

“There was some kind of renaissance going on around 2000 in Toronto,” a voice narrates in the trailer. “The creativity was on fire.” More band members explain how they felt special freedom during that period and started getting people together for basement jams with guests, as footage of those early gatherings plays. After their second album, You Forgot It in People, captured people’s interest, their career took off, and as one member notes, “the band broke up over and over again.”

Some of the people interviewed for the doc, which filmmaker Stephen Chung directed, are literally every member of the band, obviously including Kevin Drew and Brendan Canning, as well as Leslie Feist and Emily Haines, who both have sung with BSS in addition to their own careers. The picture includes a lot of personal, never-before-seen footage that the group has been holding onto.

The film has had a long genesis. Chung delivered an initial rough cut in 2007, but the group didn’t want it released (something hinted at in the trailer). Since so much has happened to the band members since then, the producers are promising a film that shows how the group has “grown up” since then.

In a 2019 Rolling Stone profile, Drew said that Broken Social Scene, despite its many breakups, was planning on sticking around. “We are a middle-aged indie-rock band who have decided to come back,” he said. “When you come back, it’s great, they welcome you. Then you ask, ‘Hey, do you mind if we stay over a little longer? We’ll contribute to the fridge and do the dishes, but we wanna be here.’”