The landmark 1990s music festival Lilith Fair is the subject of a new feature documentary from Elevation Pictures and Dan Levy’s Not A Real Production Company, which has just wrapped production.

Commissioned by CBC, the simply titled Lilith Fair will recount the history of the all-women music festival launched by Canadian singer-songwriter Sarah McLachlan and her team in 1997, in response to the prevailing industry sexism that limited women artists from playing together on a concert bill and getting back-to-back radio airplay.

In its first three editions, from ’97 to ’99, the tour attracted such stars as Sheryl Crow, Jewel, Tracy Chapman, Fiona Apple, the Indigo Girls, Erykah Badu, Bonnie Raitt, Liz Phair and Paula Cole, and helped launch the careers of a next generation of artists including Missy Elliott, Nelly Furtado, The Chicks and Christina Aguilera.

However, despite its enormous success, the festival became the victim of a cultural and industry backlash that marginalized Lilith Fair artists and turned the entire concept into a punchline. An attempted 2010 revival ultimately fell apart due to financial problems and poor attendance.

Based on the 2019 article “Building a Mystery: The Oral History of Lilith Fair,” written by Jessica Hopper, Sasha Geffen and Jenn Pelly for Vanity Fair and Epic Magazine, the doc will draw from more than 600 hours of never-before-seen archive as well as new interviews with fans, festival organizers, and artists (including Raitt, Crow, Badu, Jewel, Indigo Girls, Emmylou Harris, Brandi Carlile and Olivia Rodrigo) to place the festival within a wider cultural and historical context and demonstrate how it continues to inspire the music and progressive movements of today.

Elevation will distribute Lilith Fair theatrically in Canada, with White Horse Pictures handling international sales. The film will premiere in Canada as part of the 2025-26 season of the CBC doc strand The Passionate Eye.

Lilith Fair was commissioned by the CBC with the participation of the Canada Media Fund and the Rogers Group of Funds. It is presented by Chicago Media Project and produced in association with Epic Magazine, Carlene Laughlin, Minderoo Pictures and the Elfant Festa Family.

The film is directed by Ally Pankiw, and is made with the support of the original festival’s founders McLachlan, Terry McBride, Dan Fraser and Marty Diamond, who all serve as executive producers. The producers are Dan Levy for Not A Real Production Company and Christina Piovesan for Elevation Pictures. Rachel McLean serves as supervising producer.

In addition to the Lilith founders, the executive producers are Cassidy Hartmann, Nicholas Ferrall, Nigel Sinclair and Jeanne Elfant Festa for White Horse Pictures; Noah Segal for Elevation Pictures; Arthur Spector, Joshuah Bearman and Joshua Davis for Epic Magazine; Pankiw, Steve Cohen, Paula Froehle, Rose Lizzaraga, David Scherer, Eric and Barb Dobkin, Bill Gee and Sue Crothers for Chicago Media Project; and Hopper, Wayne Isaak, Lynne Stopkewich, Jessica Fraser and Dean English. The co-executive producers are Christina Nolan and Blue Skyzz Trust.

This story originally appeared in Realscreen

Image courtesy of Elevation Pictures