On July 29, a real love letter will be sent to the Quebec metal group Voïvod by the Fantasia festival. The documentary Voivod. We Are Connecteddirected by Canadian-Colombian Felipe Belalcazar, will be presented as a world premiere. The documentary filmmaker traces the 40-year history of the Jonquière group through testimonies from the highest levels of international metal music, from Opeth to Celtic Frost, including Jason Newsted, ex-member of Metallica.
A timeline
Quebec media have often tried to measure the influence of Voïvod, but the exercise is not easy since their followers are spread all over the globe. They also represent different generations. We Are Connected connects all these points chronologically.
Voïvod launches its first album, War and Painin 1984. The group then gave into brutal thrash metal, in phase with the nascent movement in California. As the years went by, the quartet added to its musical identity a significant dose of progressive rock, gathering a new audience in the process.
The peak of his popularity came in 1990, shortly after the release of the album Nothingface and led by the success of a music video made for their cover ofAstronomy Domine by Pink Floyd. It was enough to garner thousands of fans who have remained loyal to them. Voïvod has never ceased its activities.
40 years of obstacles to tell
It is therefore an immense challenge for a director to condense 40 years of career into a single documentary, and Felipe Belalcazar makes no secret of it. The story he chose to tell is that of the countless obstacles that the group overcame. “My idea was to communicate that they had all the odds against them. It is difficult to describe the reality of Jonquière, in the 1980s, to someone who comes from elsewhere in the world; the snow, the distance, the road to go to Quebec or Montreal to buy equipment or see shows and the fact that at the beginning, no one in the group really spoke English. I challenge anyone to go through everything that Voïvod had to overcome,” he says.
The idea for this film emerged in 2016. “A friend and I were talking about a documentary about Rush… We wondered why there wasn’t one about Voivod.” The project was launched.
The young director, however, had to gain the trust of the members of Voïvod before they were sold on his project. He didn’t sense any mistrust, but he quickly understood that there was a human story to tell and that it required tact. “We are perhaps going through a golden age of music documentaries,” Belalcazar emphasizes, “in which some tend towards sensationalism. At journalism school, I learned things differently. I decided instead to focus on the humans behind Voïvod.”
Crucial stages in their history, such as the death of Denis “Piggy” D’Amour, guitarist, founding member and above all teenage friend of Michel “Away” Langevin (drummer) and Denis “Snake” Bélanger (singer), needed to be addressed with sensitivity. The same goes for a serious car accident that the group survived in 1998.
Important testimonies
Once the band’s approval was obtained, Belalcazar went looking for testimonials. And he got the cream of the crop. Jason Newsted, ex-bassist of Metallica, fan of Voïvod and even briefly member of Voïvod in the early 2000s, had not often spoken publicly about his love for the Saguenéens. This important testimony is now immortalized. Check.
Added to this are a panoply of metal musicians from all over the world, each more influential than the last, including Tobias Forge of Ghost (Sweden), Tom G. Warrior of Celtic Frost (Switzerland) and Mikael Åkerfeldt of Opeth (Sweden). Album producer Glen Robinson is also there and adds another depth to the experience. Not only did he produce the album Nothingface of Voivod, but he has also worked with Keith Richards, George Martin and even the Ramones during his career. The only one missing from this group is perhaps Dave Grohl (Nirvana, Foo Fighters), a self-confessed Voivod fan.
Belalcazar also sought out Canadian references to complete the portrait, including Danko Jones and host George Stroumboulopoulos. This point of view sheds new light on Voïvod and consolidates the idea that he now has his place in Canadian musical history, and not just in Quebec, as evidenced by the Juno Award he won in 2019.
The trials of production
Like Voivod, Belalcazar had to overcome all odds to bring his project to fruition. After an initial round of interviews began in 2019, the pandemic hit. The project was put on hold. After the pandemic, the budget to resume production was slim. Without government support, the independent filmmaker resorted to two crowdfunding campaigns.
The whole process took eight years. This is where the expression ” labor of love » makes perfect sense. Voivod fan Felipe Belalcazar drew on his passion to pay tribute to the band he loves so much, but also to ensure that the musicians Voivod inspired are heard.
And how does this influence really translate? “To be influenced by Voivod is to be influenced by Voivod’s idea,” Belalcazar sums up. “It’s letting your ideas fly freely, it’s being honest, it’s persevering.”