Dan Levy’s Not A Real Production Company, Elevation Pictures (Infinity Pool, Alice, Darling) and CBC are excited to announce that production has been completed on the upcoming official LILITH FAIR documentary presented by White Horse Pictures (Lucy & Desi, The Bee Gees: How Can You Mend a Broken Heart) in association with Epic Magazine. The film is produced with the support of the original Lilith Fair founders – Sarah McLachlan, Terry McBride, Dan Fraser, and Marty Diamond, who will executive produce. The documentary is directed by Ally Pankiw (I Used to Be Funny, Black Mirror, The Great) and tells the story of the groundbreaking music festival featuring only women artists, started by Canadian singer-songwriter Sarah McLachlan and her team in the late-1990s in direct opposition to the prevailing “industry wisdom” that limited women from playing together on a concert bill and getting back-to-back airplay on the radio.

The tour, which McLachlan titled Lilith Fair, attracted an array of stars like Sheryl Crow, Jewel, Tracy Chapman, Fiona Apple, the Indigo Girls, Erykah Badu, Bonnie Raitt, and Liz Phair, and quickly went from longshot idea to cultural juggernaut. Over three enormously successful summers, Lilith Fair helped launch the careers of artists like Missy Elliott, The Chicks, Nelly Furtado, and Christina Aguilera, raised millions of dollars for women’s charities, and catapulted feminist and queer representation into mainstream pop culture.

Commissioned by CBC with the participation of the Canada Media Fund and the Rogers Group of Funds, LILITH FAIR is produced by Dan Levy for Not A Real Production Company and Elevation’s Christina Piovesan. Executive producers are Cassidy Hartmann, Nicholas Ferrall, Nigel Sinclair and Jeanne Elfant Festa for White Horse; Noah Segal for Elevation; Jessica Hopper; Arthur Spector, Joshuah Bearman, and Joshua Davis for Epic Magazine; Ally Pankiw,

Steve Cohen and Paula Froehle for Chicago Media Project; and Wayne Isaak. Rachel McLean serves as supervising producer and the cinematographer is Nina Djacic. The documentary is presented by Chicago Media Project and produced in association with Epic Magazine, Carlene Laughlin, Minderoo Pictures, and the Elfant Festa Family. Elevation Pictures will distribute theatrically in Canada, and the feature will premiere during the 2025-26 season of documentary showcase The Passionate Eye on CBC and CBC Gem. White Horse Pictures is acting as sales agent Worldwide.

Lilith Fair exemplifies the ‘cool older sister’ of the music industry, who already knows the joys and nightmares of being a woman and tries to make the path a little bit easier for future generations. I want to give a deeper understanding of the festival to the young female, non-binary and queer musicians and music fans who picked up a guitar or tickets to a concert for the first time because Lilith showed them how,” says director Ally Pankiw. “I am so excited to work with Dan Levy as a producer on this film, as we have had many wonderful experiences as collaborators who have been able to shed light on characters and heroes not often given a second look.”

Dan Levy added, “Lilith Fair holds a very special place in my heart. It was one of the first spaces where I remember feeling at home. The music, the sense of community, and the power of a group of women proving an entire industry wrong was a tremendous thing to experience. What Sarah built with that festival changed so much for so many people. And while it is now seen as an odds-defying success story, it was an uphill battle every step of the way. And there is a lot to be learned from that story. I’m thrilled to join Sarah on this adventure and am excited for everyone to understand just how revolutionary Lilith Fair really was.”

“Originating with Canadian icon Sarah McLachlan, the Lilith Fair festival changed the course of the music industry beginning in the late 1990s and its reverberations are still being felt today,” said Sally Catto, General Manager, Entertainment, Factual and Sports, CBC. “In collaboration with the film’s talented creative team, we look forward to giving audiences across the country rare access to this turning point in music history, seen through a contemporary lens.”

“This is a story that’s long overdue and also deeply relevant in today’s times,” added Cassidy Hartmann for White Horse. “We’re so excited to be working with Ally, Dan, and Elevation to bring Lilith Fair’s groundbreaking achievements and impact to light, and to help share its many joys with a wider audience.”

In addition to charting the underdog story of Lilith’s success, the film takes a fresh look at the often-toxic culture of the music industry in the ’90s and the backlash that emerged against Lilith Fair, which marginalized Lilith Fair artists and made the tour a cultural punchline. It also follows McLachlan’s journey, illuminating how she became the person who turned the Lilith idea into a phenomenon, following her into the present day as she, and others, grapple with today’s music industry and the festival’s legacy.

The doc is inspired by the 2019 article, “Building a Mystery: An Oral History of Lilith Fair”, from Vanity Fair and Epic Magazine, written by Jessica Hopper with Sasha Geffen and Jenn Pelly. It will draw from more than 600 hours of never-before-seen archival footage as well as new interviews and stories from fans, festival organizers, and artists such as Bonnie Raitt, Sheryl

Crow, Erykah Badu, Natalie Merchant, Mýa, Jewel, Indigo Girls, Emmylou Harris, Brandi Carlile and Olivia Rodrigo. LILITH FAIR contextualizes the festival’s story within a larger cultural

moment to explore how the tide of “girl power” helped give rise to some of the festival’s most insurgent stars and continues to inspire the music and progressive movements of today.

Executive producing alongside the Lilith Fair founders are Lynne Stopkewich, Jessica Fraser, and Dean English. Along with Steve Cohen and Paula Froehle, Rose Lizzaraga and David Scherer, Eric and Barb Dobkin, Bill Gee and Sue Crothers will executive produce for Chicago Media Project. Blue Skyzz Trust and Christina Nolan will Co-Executive Produce.

For CBC, Sally Catto is General Manager, Entertainment, Factual, & Sports; Jennifer Dettman is Executive Director, Unscripted Content; Sandra Kleinfeld is Senior Director, Documentary; and Michelle McCree is Executive in Charge of Production, CBC Docs and The Passionate Eye.