The Tragically Hip to Release Two Videos About Their Final Days
Next month, the Tragically Hip will release two videos that chronicle their final days with lead singer Gord Downie. Long Time Running, a feature film documentary about their 2016 Man Machine Poem tour, will come out on Dec. 1. A National Celebration, which documents their final concert, will arrive three weeks later.
Directed by Jennifer Baichwal and Nicholas de Pencier, Long Time Running takes fans inside the rehearsals for that 15-date tour, which was announced after an announcement that Downie had a glioblastoma multiforme, an incurable brain tumor. With interviews from all five members of the Tragically Hip, it will air on Canada's BellMedia this Sunday (Nov. 12), after which it will be available for streaming on Netflix. The DVD and Blu-ray includes the director's cut and a featurette with 10 minutes worth of interviews from fans like Leslie Feist and Sarah Harmer.
A National Celebration, meanwhile, was recorded on Aug. 20, 2016 at the Rogers K-Rock Centre in Kingston, Ontario, and features all 30 songs the Tragically Hip performed that night. This show, which found Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in the audience, was streamed globally via the CBC. The band is releasing the video without overdubs.
Downie passed away on Oct. 17 at the age of 53, only 10 days before the release of a solo double-album, Introduce Yerself. Tragically Hip guitarist Rob Baker praised the work, saying: "To know your time is limited and to say, ‘This is what I’m going to do with the time I’ve got left.’ I thought it was a beautiful legacy project for him, to really hunker down and use his time for something positive, to build some awareness.”