CIFF 2024: Karen Knox on We Forgot to Break Up
By Ansharah Shakil, September 18 2024—
We Forgot to Break Up, a film which first premiered in London before having its Canadian premiere in Toronto, will be showcasing for the first time in Alberta at the annual Calgary International Film Festival (CIFF), taking place this year from Sept. 19-29. The film was based on the novel Heidegger Stairwell by Kayt Burgess, which was followed by a short film called We Forgot to Break Up by Chandler Levack and now by the feature film by Canadian actor and director Karen Knox.
“There’s two different cinematic styles that get employed within the film. About thirty percent of the film is shot on a retro handycam, like a Sony handycam, and the rest of it is shot on beautiful cinematic lenses. I juxtaposed these two cinematic styles because I wanted it to have the feel of a band documentary,” Knox told the Gauntlet. “The film is set in the late 90s and early 2000s so it was important to me that we had a cinematic language and style that reflected the time period.”
We Forgot to Break Up depicts the lives of a small-town indie rock band called The New Normals who move to Toronto, and the complications of their interpersonal relationships alongside their fame and the music they create. The band is led by trans man singer Evan, played by Lane Webber.
“One of the first things that really drew me into the story is the fact that the central character is trans, but it’s not a trans story,” Knox said. “I think it’s really important to create media that showcases trans characters but doesn’t make it the focal point of the narrative.”
The original music of the film is written by Torquil Campbell of Stars, a Canadian band formed in 2000 and currently touring.
““I’ve loved his music for so long, like when I was 14 years old I was listening to Stars on my CD player staring at the ceiling, so it was kind of a dream to get to work with him,” Knox said.
Alongside the original songs is the fact that all songs on the soundtrack are by a Canadian artist. The film opens up with “Rock Show” by Peaches, but also features artists like Sloan and Mistress Barbara.
“What’s cool, too, and something we really got to showcase in this film, is [the] overlap between the underground music scene and the underground queer scene, because there’s such a mutual impulse towards counterculture,” Knox added.
Music is, naturally, a vital part of We Forgot to Break Up. A passionate ode to the art of listening and loving and making music, the film is in loving conversation with the past — “nostalgia for an hour ago”, in the words of music journalist Lizzy Goodman — to create something new. Knox even had a list of films she wanted the cast to watch before they went to camera, including Dig!, This is Spinal Tap, Sound of Metal, Oasis: Supersonic and Nashville.
“I got [to Toronto[ at the time when the Strokes were really hot [and] people would talk so nostalgically of that time period, like the Broken Social Scene and like the Feist era and when Metric was at her absolute peak,” she said. “Toronto loves to do this thing with itself where it’s always nostalgic for a period that was five to 10 years ago, which I think is hilarious but something we can’t give up [on], but I think we continue to make really bright and vibrant music in this city.”
As for Calgary’s music scene, when Knox was in the city for Calgary Underground Film Festival (CUFF) in the spring, she visited the Palomino Smokehouse.
“I got to see some local bands there and they were so cool and I was like, the underground Calgary music scene is just as cool as the Toronto one. I really hope that some musicians from the Calgary music scene will come out and see this film because … it’s kind of universal,” Knox said.
Knox will be present at the CIFF screening, and she encouraged audiences to attend and not be shy about sticking around afterwards to discuss the film.
“[This] story is one that’s been told a hundred times, but we love hearing it told because it’s a story of believing in … teenage art-making and believing that that could mean something larger. There’s a beauty to the earnestness and endearing humiliation [to that],” she said. “As we get older we wish we could make art … the same way that we did when we were teenagers because we were fearless then. We weren’t embarrassed about making something that was cringe or not good enough. We were just making art because we loved it and … a spirit I tried to capture in this film is that feeling.”
We Forgot to Break Up is showing at CIFF on Sep. 20 at and Sep. 25. Tickets and more information about the film can be found on the CIFF website.