An image from Lilith Fair: Building a Mystery, directed by Canada’s Ally Pankiw.HO/The Canadian Press
When Ally Pankiw talks about Lilith Fair, the trail-blazing music festival that once showcased a who’s-who lineup of female musicians, the excitement is unmistakable in the filmmaker’s tone, even via a Zoom interview.
“I think the women of Lilith Fair did so much for the next generation of musicians, and it’s clear many of them have been inspired by Lilith Fair artists,” says Pankiw, who was born in Edmonton and is now based in Los Angeles.
Best known for her indie film I Used to Be Funny, she shares how she can’t wait for the world to see the latest project she directed, Lilith Fair: Building a Mystery, a documentary that premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on Sept. 13 and is set to air on CBC/CBC Gem beginning Sept. 17.
Featuring a mix of archival footage and interviews, the film features insight from Canadian singer-songwriter Sarah McLachlan (who launched the festival in 1997) and performers such as Jewel, Bonnie Raitt, Erykah Badu, and Emmylou Harris. Pankiw also interviewed Brandi Carlile and Olivia Rodrigo to share how the festival influenced them.
“It’s an incredible story of how these artists created a festival that opened so many doors in the industry for female artists,” Pankiw says, referencing what McLachlan told media about launching the festival.
The singer-songwriter had been criticized by music industry insiders who said that an all-female festival bill would never be successful. But she ignored the naysayers and set up a touring show featuring artists such as Sheryl Crow, Fiona Apple and Tracy Chapman. Lilith Fair sold more than two million tickets during its three-year run where it touched down in cities ranging from Dallas to Vancouver to Toronto.
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The 2010 revival, which was far less popular than the 1990s iterations, included artists such as Chantal Kreviazuk, Mary J. Blige, Tegan and Sara, Indigo Girls and Janelle Monáe.
Pankiw, 38, credits Schitt’s Creek star Dan Levy for giving her the chance to direct the film, thanks to their long-time personal and business relationship. She recalls, “We’ve been friends for a while, and I wrote 13 episodes of Schitt’s way back when, and when he was approached by a Lilith Fair producer about making the film, he said, ‘Well, have I got the lesbian director for you!’”
In a statement published by CBC, Levy says, “Lilith Fair holds a very special place in my heart. 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.”
Beyond her writing stint for Schitt’s Creek, Pankiw also directed two episodes of Black Mirror, the creepy-cool sci-fi anthology series where she had the opportunity to revel in another creator’s playground. “Black Mirror is like its own cinematic universe, and you get to make your episode as its own little standalone film, and you get to really approach it as a filmmaker,” she says.
Moving from fictional storytelling to a documentary format didn’t faze Pankiw because of how Lilith Fair’s impact influenced her personally.
“The theme of how Lilith created a safe space for women in the music industry, it really resonated with me as a female filmmaker and the types of spaces I’ve had to navigate in the entertainment industry,” Pankiw says.
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Pankiw never attended a Lilith Fair show as she was too young at the time but her older sister frequently took in the concerts. “The festival itself, and McLachlan, felt like the archetype of the cool older girl in pop culture who tells you a secret,” she says, “and it really bothered me how Lilith Fair has been misremembered and downsized over the years.”
Pankiw draws a line connecting her passion for telling the Lilith Fair story to her previous work, especially the 2023 film I Used to Be Funny. A Toronto comedian, Sam (Rachel Sennott, Bottoms), struggles to reconcile with her relationship and her approach to comedy when a sexual assault fractures her life. Globe critic Johanna Schneller said she admired several nuances in the film, such as, “How long everything stays difficult for assault survivors (in some ways, forever). I love that what Sam is robbed of – being funny – is everything, but not something we often think about.”
Pankiw says about her first film, “Most stories are told through the lens of a very male narrative, like a hero’s journey lens, and a lot of the time women’s stories are shoehorned into that shape and I think for me personally as a young woman, winning looks a lot different than it does in the normal three-act structure … And I think healing and recovery don’t work like that. It doesn’t matter how hard you fight as it just can still be an uphill battle.”
Add female-led music festivals to the list of things that upend the traditional male narrative. “There’s something about that raw female energy that was percolating in the music scene in the 1990s, I love it,” Pankiw says.
Special to The Globe and Mail
