A big dream can carry you through life – as long as it comes with a killer soundtrack
STORYLINE ENTERTAINMENT presents
HARKNESS
A film by Maria Markina
Special Event Evening
Free Public Film Screening Followed by a Live Music Performance
Sunday April 13
Toronto Premiere Screening of HARKNESS
**FREE** to the Public
get your tickets here: eventbrite
The Royal Cinema – 608 College St.
Doors Open 5:30pm – Screening 6:00pm Sharp!
Followed By A Special Live Performance by Harkness
Monarch Tavern – 12 Clinton St.
**FREE** to the Public (limited seats, no entry guarantee)
9:00pm Sharp!
get your tickets here: eventbrite
Monday April 14
HARKNESS
available to stream for free across Canada
CBC Gem
PRESS RELEASE
HARKNESS — a documentary that encapsulates the raw, electric look at elusive musician Harkness — is set to shake up Toronto on Sunday April 13 when the film screens at The Royal Cinema followed by a live performance by Harkness himself, down the street at the Monarch Tavern. Commissioned as a documentary Channel original, HARKNESS will be available to stream the following day – Monday April 14 – on CBC Gem.
Directed, written, and edited by Maria Markina, and produced by Ed Barreveld of Storyline Entertainment, this high-voltage documentary promises to captivate as it delves into the journey of the musician known as Harkness.
The film tracks the highs, lows, and comebacks of Harkness, a musician with a self-guided mission for rock stardom. From his high school band days in Toronto to the legendary clubs of London, Harkness was always “the one who was going to make it.”
Following a bad acid episode in the late 80’s, Harkness grappled for years with psychosis until he found salvation in a “self-free” existence that inspired his unique stage persona: he performs in a flowing purple gown, hood, and oversized visor, obscuring his face and deflecting identity. As he explains in the film, “when there is the absence of self, there is this oneness that is innocent and loving – but having an ego is the psychosis.”
After a determined attempt to break into the music scene in London, and disillusioned and frustrated by the rigid rules of the music industry, Harkness retreated from the scene entirely. For decades, he disappeared into his mother’s basement, converting it into a state-of-the-art studio and becoming a mystery figure dedicated to creating his own music. Now, 20-years later, he’s coming out swinging with a power-pop album he’s convinced will be his ticket to the big time. Is the world still waiting for Harkness?
Come for the music, stay for the story.
Produced with the Participation of Canada Media Fund, Ontario Creates, Rogers Telefund, with the assistance of Hot Docs-Slaight Family Fund, with the support from Doc Institute Breakthrough Rogers CBC Award, with the cooperation of the Canadian Federation of Musicians, film and television tax credit assistance from the Government of Ontario, funded by the Government of Canada, produced in association with documentary Channel.