Director’s Note: Hard Core Logo LIVE

When I lived in Vancouver in the late 80s and early 90s, I remember my first time seeing D.O.A. perform. I was immediately hooked on their powerful sound with smart songs that are anthems for action against big business and its inhumanity. My friends and I would gather and celebrate the coolest punk band, like ever, in Vancouver and D.O.A.’s music gave us all the strength to enact change in our own lives.
The ability of punk music and the punk attitude to use anger as action for change was perhaps the best tool anyone could hand a young man looking for his raison d’être.
Years later, when I had moved to Edmonton, I auditioned for the film Hard Core Logo to play the role of the CJSR radio host. I drove down to Calgary and had a terrible audition because Bruce McDonald was sitting right there in the room and I was, like, super nervous.
Today, here I am directing Hard Core Logo: LIVE! I believe that this story brings Canadians together. It brings us together because we refuse to let our vast landscape and a few thousand miles of travel stop us from sharing our music, our art and our dreams.
And when you cut it a little deeper, you begin to realize that punk rock is the art of change. Where looking different is celebrated, where doing it yourself is the mantra and where standing up to the man, and standing up for the little guy is what you do.
As Joe Keithley will bluntly tell you “Talk – Action = 0”.
Enjoy,
Bradley