FOREVER HIP

“It was just a dream,” Tragically Hip front man Gord Downie declares in Long Time Running, the new behind-the-scenes documentary about the now-legendary sold-out Man Machine Poem Canadian tour last summer in the wake of the singer’s brain cancer diagnosis. “It’s the best I ever felt on stage. I wanted the shows to go on forever.” Hip fans that crammed arenas from Victoria to the band’s hometown of Kingston, Ont., – includ- ing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau – felt the same way, tearfully cheering on Downie, outfitted in metallic leather, a Jaws T-shirt and feathered hat, as he roared, and exemplified “Courage” from the stage. Helmed by award-winning director Jennifer Baichwal and Nicholas de Pencier, the inside look at the Hip’s final goaround gets the gala presentation treatment for its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival in September before landing on CTV in the autumn for a nationwide broadcast.

Also at TIFF, Dame Judi Dench takes the throne as Queen Victoria 20 years after earning an Oscar nomination for playing the monumental monarch in Mrs. Brown. This time around she stars in Victoria & Abdul, about the queen’s relationship with her young Indian aide, which heads to theatres shortly after the fest.

And sci-fi fans can once again take in Steven Spielberg’s Oscar-winning classic Close Encounters of the Third Kind on the big screen when it celebrates its 40th anniversary in September with a digitally remastered release. —Mike Crisolago