PRETENDERS Documentary

Screening to be followed by a conversation with director, screenwriter and producer Joss Crowley.

Before Chrissie Hynde became the commanding voice of the Pretenders, she was a restless young woman from Akron, Ohio, born in 1951 and captivated by the liberating possibilities of rock ‘n’ roll. As a teenager, she absorbed the sounds and attitudes of 1960s counterculture before moving to London in the mid-1970s. Working at NME and immersing herself in the city’s emerging punk community, Hynde found herself in the orbit of musicians who were redefining what a rock band could be. In 1978, after years of false starts and near misses, she formed the Pretenders with Pete Farndon, James Honeyman-Scott and Martin Chambers, crafting a sound that resisted easy categorization — combining punk’s urgency, pop’s precision and rock’s swagger — with Hynde’s presence and songwriting providing an unmistakable point of view. Joss Crowley’s immersive, insightful and in-depth documentary follows Hynde across more than five decades, from her Ohio upbringing and formative London years to the Pretenders’ extraordinary breakthrough in the early 1980s and the profound losses that would alter the band’s trajectory. Through intimate, no-nonsense interviews with Hynde, filmed over three years, and a wealth of archival footage, Crowley charts Hynde’s incredible story right into the present day. Along the way, Hynde, Chambers, former Pretenders tour manager Stan Tippins and fellow musicians including Paul McCartney, Elvis Costello, Viv Albertine and Shirley Manson offer personal perspectives on the music, personalities and turbulent history of the band. Featuring generation-defining songs such as “Brass in Pocket,” “Precious,” “Stop Your Sobbing,” “Back on the Chain Gang,” “2000 Miles” and “Don’t Get Me Wrong,” Crowley’s superb portrait is for devoted fans and first-time listeners alike: an exhilarating profile of a singular, uncompromising — and exceptionally cool — artist who has forged her own path and is ready to tell her own story.  
 –Abbie Algar