Once Were Brothers: Robbie Robertson and The Band

We invite you to celebrate the life and music of Toronto’s own Canadian musical icon Robbie Robertson, who passed away on August 9, 2023, by revisiting a Festival classic from Toronto filmmaker and Oscar-winning director of Navalny, Daniel Roher.

A confessional, cautionary, and occasionally humorous tale of Robbie’s young life and the creation of one of the most enduring groups in the history of popular music, the film is a moving story of his personal journey, overcoming adversity and finding camaraderie alongside the four other men who would become brothers in music.

Telling the story of how they made their mark on music history together, Once Were Brothers blends rare archival footage, photography, and iconic songs as well as interviews with many of Robertson’s friends and collaborators such as Bruce Springsteen, Eric Clapton, Van Morrison Martin Scorsese, Peter Gabriel, Taj Mahal, Dominique Robertson, Ronnie Hawkins, and more.

In a career spanning six decades, Robbie Robertson has continued to create as a songwriter, producer, performer, actor, author and film composer. A half-Mohawk, half-Jewish kid from Toronto, Robertson would travel from the dives of Yonge Street to the deep South as an ambitious 16-year-old on a musical mission. His raw talent would thrust him into the centre of a cultural revolution, backing Bob Dylan on his notorious 1966 “electric” world tour and later, collaborating a member of The Band with Dylan on the ground-breaking Basement Tapes, inventing Americana with songs like “The Weight,” “Up on Cripple Creek” and “The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down.”

After 17 years, The Band called it quits with a lavish farewell concert on November 25th, 1976, at San Francisco’s Winterland Ballroom, immortalized in the seminal concert film, The Last Waltz, directed by Martin Scorsese – considered by many as the greatest rock and roll film of all time.

Featuring a pre-recorded intro by director Daniel Roher.

Tickets: Pay what you can *$10 minimum