Toronto International Film Festival Raises Volume With Rock Docs

TORONTO – It might get loud at the Toronto International Film Festival next month as rock documentaries take center stage.

our editor recommends

Hollywood Stars to Bring Personal Bodyguards to Toronto International Film Festival

Toronto International Film Festival Portraits

Toronto programmers already unveiled a world premiere for From the Sky Down, Oscar-winning filmmaker Davis Guggenheim’s documentary about the Irish band U2.

Now comes word that fellow Oscar-winning director Jonathan Demme is set to debut his third Neil Young-based concert documentary at TIFF.

An official programming announcement is expected later this week.

Demme's concert film was shot last May over two nights at Massey Hall in Toronto, and captured Young’s Le Noise solo tour produced by Daniel Lanois.

The final installment in Demme’s concert film trilogy, after Neil Young: Heart of Gold (2006) and Neil Young Trunk Show (2008), is due out in theaters later this year.

And a world premiere for Cameron Crowe’s new documentary about famed rockers Pearl Jam, Pearl Jam Twenty, will debut on the festival’s first Saturday night at the Princess of Wales Theater.

That red carpet launch will be followed by Pearl Jam performing at the Air Canada Center in Toronto on Sunday and Monday nights.

Toronto’s tilt towards rock and roll films follows Bruce Springsteen last year strutting the red carpet in Toronto to promote Thom Zimny’s documentary about The Boss, The Promise: The Making of Darkness on the Edge of Town, which generated considerable buzz and media coverage at the festival.