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 TRAILER

Synopsis

DOUG AND THE SLUGS AND ME is a POV documentary following filmmaker Teresa Alfeld’s journey uncovering the story of her childhood best friend’s dad, Doug Bennett, leader of the legendary 1980s Canadian band Doug and the Slugs.

Teresa practically grew up at her best friend and next-door-neighbour Shea Bennett’s lively house in East Vancouver in the 1990s. She knew that Shea’s father Doug was in a band, but to Teresa, he was just Shea’s goofy dad. When Teresa and Shea’s friendship came to an abrupt end in high school, Teresa completely lost touch with the Bennett family. She was shocked to learn of Doug’s sudden death in 2004 at age 52, attributed to a long-standing yet unnamed illness.

Decades later, and now a documentary filmmaker, Teresa rediscovers Doug’s incredible catalogue of songs, so much more complex than the cheesy but fun radio singles that made Doug and the Slugs famous in their 1980s heyday. She sets out to make a documentary about Doug and his irreverent and genre-defying band the Slugs. 

Through interviews with Doug’s band mates, his family, and his friends, Teresa pieces together just how Doug and the Slugs shot from Vancouver cult sensation to national fame in the early 1980s, with multiple number one singles, gold records, and rabid media attention proclaiming the band the next big thing. A who’s who of international and Canadian musicians and industry insiders, including Sir Bob Geldof, Bif Naked, Steven Page, Ron Sexsmith, Ed the Sock, and Terry David Mulligan all help describe just how incomparable the Slugs’ music, videos, and stage show were, and why the cards were ultimately stacked against them.

Doug’s bandmates Simon Kendall and John Burton describe how, despite some very unique drama behind the scenes, the Slugs came excruciatingly close to an international breakthrough, until things eventually fell apart. But when Teresa gets her hands on Doug’s personal diaries, she finally gets a hint at what went so right, and ultimately so wrong, for her old neighbour.

As Teresa learns more about the band’s rollercoaster career, she also revisits her own memories of Doug and his family - including Shea. She realizes there was more going on next door than she could understand as a child, and through making the film, she comes to a profound sense of closure she never knew she needed.

A nostalgia-packed ride down the backroads of Canadian rock history, DOUG AND THE SLUGS AND ME is a bittersweet, emotional and entertaining film about the pivotal friendships that shape us, break us, and ultimately help us grow.

Director Notes

When I first explored making a film about legendary Vancouver band Doug and the Slugs back in 2018, I thought to myself - this should be fun, fast, and easy. Ha. 

I’d just come off the success of my first feature documentary The Rankin File: Legacy of a Radical, in which I’d worked with Slugs’ band director Simon Kendall in licensing a whole slew of Slugs tracks for use in the film. I was a bit surprised at how much attention the film’s soundtrack got, and how joyful people were to hear the music again.

I met with my producer John Bolton, and we agreed it was a film that could practically make itself - the surviving band members were interesting characters with a great story, the music and videos were awesome, and the band had mostly preserved their archive. Like I said - fun, fast, and easy.

Never in my wildest dreams could I have predicted the journey it would take me on, one that pushed me to my very limits as a director (and, really, as a person). What started as a simple profile of this unique band became very personal, very fast, and despite my reluctance, I had to stop fighting the fact that I needed to become a character and enter the story.   

What was (in my mind) going to be a quick and dirty rock-doc soon blossomed into a four-year journey that took me from East Vancouver (where I interviewed the ever-quirky and ever-loveable Slugs) to London, UK (to interview musician and legend Sir Bob Geldof), to Toronto, ON (to interview Ed The Sock, Bif Naked, Steven Page, and also film Ron Sexsmith covering Day by Day in a one-hundred-year-old barn) and back to East Vancouver (to interview my childhood best friend at a bowling alley) - all during a pandemic no less. There was gut-busting laughter, lots of tears, and a surprising sense of closure I never knew I needed.

The resulting film could not be further from a traditional rock-doc. On the one hand, it chronicles the rise and fall of Doug and the Slugs and offers a nostalgia-packed Can-con star-studded ride along the back roads of Canadian rock history. On the other hand, it’s a POV story about relationships and the pivotal friendships that shape us, break us, and help us grow. And somehow it all comes together in 90 minutes.

I offer my immense gratitude to the Slugs including Simon Kendall, John Burton, Richard Baker, Steve Bosley, and Wally Watson, Doug’s family Nancy Hare, Shea Bennett, Della Bennett, and Devon Bennett, and the amazing community of people who came together to make this film happen. Most importantly, I’m grateful to Doug Bennett for leaving us his incredible catalogue of songs, videos, and personal writings. I hope that Doug and the Slugs and Me would get his stamp of approval.

CONTACT

Producer: John Bolton / Opus 59 Films

E / john (at) opus59films.com

Producer & Writer & Director: Teresa Alfeld / Savoy Films

E / teresa (at) savoyfilms.com