Final Rating: 4/5
On June 15th 2011 the Vancouver Canucks lost Game 7 of the Stanley Cup finals 4-0 to the Boston Bruins, allowing the Bruins to win the league championship. After the game finished angry Canucks fans began rioting in Vancouver and set in motion one of the worst responses to a sporting event in North American history. I’m Just Here For The Riot documents the event and aftermath, interviewing many people involved from participants who were arrested, supporters who tried to stop the riot, journalists covering the series and police officers who worked the event.
In 2010 the city of Vancouver hosted the Winter Olympics and Team Canada won gold for both the men’s and women’s hockey tournaments. The city celebrated hard, but there was no destruction. It was a shame that when the Canucks lost things got so ugly.
As a hockey fan, I’m well aware of the 2011 riots, but as a Toronto Maple Leafs fan and at the time a Toronto citizen, I only watched the events unfold from a distance, both literally and figuratively. Seeing the full devastation of the city and the deconstruction of everything that happened was truly eye opening.
Directors Asia Youngman (N’xaxaitkw) and Kathleen Jayme (The Grizzlie Truth, Searching For Big Country) team up with ESPN to direct a film in their legendary 30 For 30 series. For those unaware of the series, they are documentaries that cover the biggest, most infamous or untold stories around sports. Past highlights include docs on the rise and fall of O.J. Simpson, the Detroit Piston bad boys and runner Ben Johnson being stripped of his gold medal for doping among many others.
The film combines news and social media footage with interviews from key subjects of the riots. We meet Alex Prochazka, a professional BMX rider who had his picture taken in front of a burning car and lost his sponsorships ending his pro career. Sarah McCusker, a university student was caught on camera stealing clothes from an H&M and became the face of the looters. “Dylan”, who wished to remain anonymous in the documentary was a high school student and had a photo go viral of himself standing in front of a bank with the widows all smashed up as he holds a hockey stick in the air while he screams. They all get a chance to tell their stories.
The film starts by re-telling the events of the Canucks losing the championship but it ends up evolving into a philosophical debate of mob mentality versus mob justice. Fans started out angry that the Canucks lost, then people began throwing garbage around and things quickly scale upwards. Before you know it cars are being flipped and set on fire and stores are having their windows smashed as people run in to loot them. The flip side was what happened afterwards.
Vancouverites that were angry that their fellow townspeople were destroying their city used newfound social media sites like Twitter and Facebook to post pictures and videos of the rioters with an attempt to name the perpetrators. This allowed everyone to chime in on the thoughts of the rioters, which included sending people death threats. The police took the public assistance to help name and shame people as they were then arrested and tried for their crimes.
The film takes an incredible look into how modern social justice and the spread of information now takes place, like an uncontrollable wildfire. Gleaning insights from people who not only took part in the riots but were convicted is remarkable. My only qualms with the documentary is they spend too much time speaking with police, especially since it is shown and pointed out that at the beginning of the unrest the police do next to nothing as fights are breaking out and people are throwing bottles around. If they had stepped in to do their jobs perhaps things would have turned out differently. The failure of the police to do their job then allowing them to present themselves as the heroes doesn’t jive with the view we have of police forces these days.
It also would have been interesting to hear from the players or management of the Canucks with their thoughts on what had happened. At the beginning of the film we get a brief snippet of an interview with goaltender Roberto Luongo that lasts only a few seconds, but they never cut back to him again. Considering Jayme’s ability to get interviews with people who have a touchy relationship with the past like she did in The Grizzlie Truth, you would have hoped she would have been able to secure similar interviews.
Youngman and Jayme have crafted a superb historical document that represents a black eye on the city they call home and it is a great addition to the phenomenal 30 For 30 series that shines lights on stories that need more background like this one.
I’m Just Here For The Riot was seen during the 2023 Hot Docs film festival.
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