The Legend of 23 Hop (2019)

A historical documentary on the murky origins of Toronto rave culture as told by music journalists, DJs, club owners, promoters and club kids. The year is 1989. After Toronto's seminal Twilight Zone closed, a man named Ted Clarke has a party to honor a friend's suicide which turns into regular ground shaking gatherings at his loft near Queen and River with DJs spinning Chicago house. Dubbed Kola and lasting only two brief years, the parties were legendary and would help solidify the template of the warehouse scene. Only a short while later, in the summer of 1991, after tasting the continental Acid House experience a bunch of Scottish kids from Brampton are audacious enough to start throwing regular whistle blasting parties at 23 Hop. Like Kola, Exodus gatherings would be short lived but retain mythical status. They would help signal entire new movements with analogue production companies holding weekly events at 318 Richmond St. West or a plethora of other warehouse spaces for years to come. In all three cases, the city would never be the same.