Just hours after the Venice Film Festival revealed its 2019 opener, the Toronto International Film Festival has wasted no time announcing its first premiere. TIFF 2019 will kick off with Daniel Roher’s “Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and The Band,” a documentary about one of Toronto’s musical heroes. The film will have its gala debut on Thursday, September 5 at Roy Thompson Hall.
In a statement, Cameron Bailey, Artistic Director and Co-Head of TIFF remarked, “This is one of Toronto’s great stories of a hometown hero. From his early years in this city to the inspiration he took from life on the Six Nations reserve, to the impact he’s had on generations of music lovers, Robertson emerges in Roher’s film as a truly Canadian-made superstar. In our first year as TIFF’s Co-Heads, Joana [Vicente] and I are thrilled to open the Festival with a Canadian story that speaks to the world.”
Roher noted, “Robertson’s tale is a remarkable reminder of how vision, ambition, and hard work can empower one’s wildest dreams. Robbie took a chance on me, and I will be forever grateful that he rolled the dice on a kid from Toronto to helm his story. Opening the Toronto International Film Festival is beyond some wildest dreams of my own and I am thankful for everyone who believed in me.”
Robertson added, “I’m so tremendously honored that the premiere of Once Were Brothers, inspired by my memoir Testimony, will be the opening movie at TIFF this year, in my hometown of Toronto, Ontario, Canada.”
Spanning six decades of Robertson’s career and inspired by his 2016 memoir, “Testimony,” “Once We Were Brothers” will feature interviews with Martin Scorsese, Bruce Springsteen, Eric Clapton, Van Morrison, Peter Gabriel, Taj Mahal, Dominique Robertson and Ronnie Hawkins, among others. Roher is best known for the 2017 doc “Ghosts of Our Forest.”
The opening night film of TIFF is rarely a great movie. Recent opening night films include “Outlaw King,” “Borg/McEnroe,” “The Magnificent Seven,” “Demolition,” “The Judge” and “The Fifth Estate.”
The festival’s 2019 Galas and Special Presentations will be revealed in a press conference on July 23.
The 2019 Toronto International Film Festival will run from September 5-15.
