The Ally Pankiw-helmed film will screen at Toronto Film Fest and then debut on streaming in September
ABC News Studios has acquired the new documentary Lilith Fair: Building a Mystery. The film about the famed music festival created by Sara McLachlan will premiere at Toronto Film Festival on Sept. 17 before debuting on Hulu Sept. 21.
Ally Pankiw directed the film, which is produced by Dan Levy‘s Not a Real Production Company and commissioned by CBC. The original Lilith Fair founders — McLachlan, Terry McBride, Dan Fraser, and Marty Diamond — are producers of the feature as well. The film is based on the 2019 Vanity Fair article “Building a Mystery: An Oral History of Lilith Fair” written by Jessica Hopper with Sasha Geffen and Jenn Pelly.
Pankiw’s film pulls from over 600 hours of never-before-seen archival footage as well as numerous interviews with fans, the organizers and the artists. Alongside McLachlan, the doc will feature classic Lilith Fair artists Bonnie Raitt, Sheryl Crow, Erykah Badu, Paula Cole, Jewel, Mýa, Natalie Merchant, Indigo Girls, and Emmylou Harris as well as a younger generation of fans like Brandi Carlile and Olivia Rodrigo.
“Lilith Fair holds a very special place in my heart,” Levy said in a statement. “It was one of the first spaces where I remember feeling at home. The music, the sense of community, and the power of a group of women proving an entire industry wrong was a tremendous thing to experience. What Sarah built with that festival changed so much for so many people. And while it is now seen as an odds-defying success story, it was an uphill battle every step of the way. And there is a lot to be learned from that story. It’s an honor to be working alongside Sarah on this and I am excited for everyone to understand just how revolutionary Lilith Fair really was.”
Along with the doc, McLachlan will release her first studio album of new music in over a decade. Better Broken will be released on Sept. 19 and is produced by Tony Berg.
