The White Stripes’ Canadian Adventure – A Documentary

The documentary was filmed during Jack and Meg’s 2007 Canadian tour. The tour kicked off June 24 in Burnaby, British Columbia, and concluded July 16 in St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador. 

The White Stripes’ goal during the three-week trek was to perform in every Canadian province and territory.

The band played traditional venues like the 21,500-capacity Bell Centre in Montreal and the 16,000-capacity Molson Amphitheatre in Toronto, but The White Stripes also stopped off at random locations for spontaneous mini-shows.

“We’d make up an idea at breakfast of where we’d play that day, whether it was on a boat, bus, school or city park, then we’d make it happen,” Jack White told the Canadian Press. “We didn’t pre-plan it. I don’t like to do that too much, because I think it ruins things.”

The impromptu shows included matinee performances on a Winnipeg city bus, on the back of a boat at a harbor in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, at a Toronto summer kids day camp and at a bowling alley.

“Under Great White Northern Lights” was directed by Emmett Malloy, who previously worked with the band on a number of music videos, according to the White Stripes’ Web site.

“When we started, we just didn’t know what we were doing, so we just [said]: ‘Film everything, see what happens,'” JackWhite told the Canadian Press. “I’m pretty anti-reality television and all that ridiculous peeking behind the curtain sort of aspect of entertainment these days,” he added. “But in this case, I don’t think it really has that ridiculousness to it. It does have an insight into some of the things that got created and how we went about making a tour like that happen.”

The ex-husband and wife team (or “brother and sister”) gave Malloy “unprecedented access” on tour to create a film that features a “mix of striking live footage and poignant off-stage moments.”

The White Stripes’ Web site includes a peak at four B&W photos snapped while on the band’s Canadian adventure.

You can also catch Jack White in the rock documentary “It Might Get Loud,” along with U2’s the Edge and Led Zeppelin’s Jimmy Page. The film premiered at the Los Angeles Film Festival last month and is set for official release Aug. 14.

Jack and Meg are currently in the process of working on the band’s seventh studio album, a follow up to 2007’s Icky Thump.

Click here for The White Stripes’ Web site.

Click here for the CBC News article.