The Carter Effect continues its hold
Hamilton filmmaker Sean Menard’s documentary on Vince Carter is one hot ticket at TIFF
As he steered the van filled with his film crew through the driving blizzard, he seriously thought about turning back for home.
He had 18 hours still to go to get to Memphis. More, if these conditions persisted. Risking all their lives for an interview seemed like a really stupid idea.
So Hamilton filmmaker Sean Menard flicked on the turn signal and took the next exit ramp.
“I just can’t do this,” he remembers thinking.
For him, it was a devastating admission, because waiting for him in Tennessee was Vince Carter.
Not only was this the man responsible for the explosion of basketball fandom in Canada but he was also the subject of Menard’s latest documentary.
The same film being premièred Saturday at the prestigious Toronto International Film Festival.
Getting Carter on film was crucial to the whole project.
It was a couple of years ago that Menard had written a one-page concept for a documentary about the man nicknamed “Air Canada” and what he’d done for Canadian basketball. He called it “The Carter Effect.” Trouble was, every sports network in this country had taken a pass on it.
“I thought it was dead in the water,” the 32-year-old says.
But then, Uninterrupted — a production company owned by NBA superstar LeBron James — bought Menard’s previous piece about a female MMA fighter. It was so well received, the folks behind it came calling for more.
“They said, ‘What else do you have?’” he says.
He sent a list. He included “The Carter Effect” despite figuring it would never be green-lighted. It was way too Canada-centric for an American audience. What he didn’t know was how much James had been influenced by Carter as a boy. To his surprise, they loved the idea and told him to do it.
Over the next weeks, he sat down with Steve Nash, Charles Oakley, Tracy McGrady, McMaster athletics director (and former Raptors’ general manager) Glen Grunwald, former NBA commissioner David Stern, Drake and many more names from basketball and entertainment. But he still didn’t have Carter. He didn’t even have contact with the man. And now, carving out some time with him before his deadline was becoming less and less likely. The 19-year NBA veteran had pressing stuff going on in his personal life and the NBA playoffs were about to start. The window to find an opening for an in-
terview was almost closed.
Then the Memphis Grizzlies’ PR department reached out and said the eight-time all-star would have 20 minutes to talk on a Saturday in April.
To make sure nothing went wrong, Menard and his crew booked flights for Thursday. When they got to Toronto airport however, a massive storm near Memphis caused their flight to be cancelled. The first available flight out? Saturday afternoon.
That wasn’t going to work, so they rented a van and headed toward Detroit, which is where their own winter storm hit. And where Menard — who’d survived a horrendous car accident a decade before during inclement weather — decided his anxiety was too high to keep going.
The film would have to be delayed. Or go on without the main character. There was no third option short of a miracle.
“All of a sudden,” he says, “the sun comes out.”
Long story short, they changed their mind again, blasted through to Chicago, caught a flight to Memphis, made it to the arena and got their 20 minutes with their man. At which point Carter waved off the PR person and hung around to chat on film for another 40.
The result is a documentary that isn’t just a massive step up for the Sir Allan MacNab grad — the previous outstanding work of his you might’ve seen were docs on a reunion of the Montreal Expos and a behind-thescenes piece on Connor McDavid as a junior — but a movie that’s already drawing a huge response.
On Saturday, it will be shown at the 2,000-seat Princess of Wales Theatre in Toronto, TIFF’s largest venue. Carter and Drake will be there. Possibly James, too.
Tickets sold out before they were even available to the public.
The three other festival showings are already sold out as well with tickets going for as much as $225 on StubHub.
“It’s the hottest ticket in town right now,” he says.
Which is amazing under any circumstance. Let alone considering how close it came to not happening at all.