STRIKE UP THE BAND
Teen musicians wear ‘band geek’ as badge of honour
CBC Docs POV: Band Geeks Friday, CBC Streams on CBC.ca
MELISSA HANK
In a world where comic book fans reign supreme, foodies are amply served and the tech-savvy shall inherit the Earth, one group is finally ready to toot its own horn. They are ... the band geeks. Band geeks are a noble people. They’re not afraid to march in public dressed like soldiers from The Nutcracker. They might get into treble, but they’re still all about that bass. And they ’ll proudly tell you the difference between pizza and pizzicato, embouchure and an ombudsman — in 3/4 time, if you ask nicely.
Morgan Elliott is a former band geek. But really, once you’re a band geek, you’re always a band geek. Back in the day, the filmmaker spent five years playing clarinet for the Burlington Teen Tour Band, a 70-year-old ensemble for high school students in Burlington, Ont., that’s known for being highly decorated, both literally and figuratively.
Her documentary Band Geeks, airing Friday under CBC’s Docs POV banner and streaming on cbc.ca/watch, visits the modernday Teen Tour Band and its 200plus members. They’re preparing for the annual Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena, Calif. — fancy stuff, as most people who’ve ever donned a jaunty hat, cummerbund or side-striped pants already know.
The excitement of filming the project, Elliott says, was enough to loosen her ligature.
“Walking through those doors, it was like I was in high school again. It was so surreal,” Elliott says. “I thought it was time for a story to be told about kids who play instruments and who aren’t on (electronic) devices. I was curious to see what was it like to be in the band now. Was it the same or was I caught up with the romance of it?”
She was pleasantly surprised. Molto agitato, if you will. In a good way.
“I really thought I should’ve had my band jacket on because the kids were saying the exact same things that my friends and I were saying in high school,” she says. “There was the same dedication and goofing around, but when it’s showtime, it’s showtime and they were very proud to wear that red tour jacket.”
Band Geeks tells the teens’ stories from their point of view, in their own words. And the issues some of them have to deal with are intense. The managing director has had kids reveal struggles with depression, sexual orientation, broken homes and low-income families, among other things.
Elliott herself found solace in the band after her stepdad was in a multi-car crash that left him in a coma for three years before he died.
“High school can have cliques and bullying and all that type of stuff, but it just doesn’t happen in the band. You have 200-and-someodd kids who have your back,” she says.
“When I was in the band, it made high school great for me because I didn’t worry about the politics of what was happening at school. I could just enjoy my high school experience. I gather it’s the same if you’re in a sports team and such, but I travelled the world with these guys, spent a lot of time on buses and trains.”
Feel-good theme aside, Band Geeks isn’t typical fare for a CBC Docs POV film. The series’ recent documentaries include Prison Pump (about a former drug lord turned fitness entrepreneur), 14 & Muslim (following Muslim teens in Canadian high schools) and The Reckoning (examining sexual harassment in Hollywood).
“I just felt that in this day and age of a lot of doom and gloom, a little ray of sunshine would be nice. I wasn’t sure what I was going to find, and the band was letting us tell the story warts at all. But we were just watching highly motivated kids who were proud to represent the country,” says Elliott.
“If we can play this from coast to coast, other kids might see themselves in these kids and want to join their local band, if they have any kind of interest in music or even just carrying a flag or banner or becoming a majorette. I want to inspire kids to pursue the arts.”
As for the title, Band Geeks, Elliott says she was worried that the term might insult.
“I was trying to come up with the title and I wasn’t sure whether the kids would be offended by it, because people might think it’s got a negative connotation.” she says. “So I asked the kids and they said, ‘Oh hey, I am proud to be a geek. I like music, and I’m fine with it.’ It’s prickly, but I was a band geek too and I wear it as a badge of honour.”