I’m Just Here for the Riot isn’t a film about sports — not in any ways that really matter.
Co-directed by UBC alum Kathleen S. Jayme and Asia Youngman, the documentary explores the 2011 riot that followed a Vancouver Canucks game, when the team lost to the Boston Bruins in game seven of the Stanley Cup finals.
For an event that happened 12 years ago, it’s one Vancouver remembers very well. Viewers showed up to the screening in Canucks jerseys and before the film had even started, people were discussing how they remembered exactly where they were that evening.
Sports have always been a vehicle to explore how our society functions, showing us the best and worst in people, and I’m Just Here for the Riot does just that. The film follows the online prosecution and shaming of riot participants that exploded in the days after the event — which former VPD chief Jim Chu described as “the first smartphone riot” — and how that drastically impacted people’s lives, perhaps more than the riot itself.
The documentary contextualizes the cause of the riot well.
Leading up to the 2011 NHL season, Canadian hockey was at a peak due to Canada’s success at the Vancouver 2010 Olympics. Prior to the Stanley Cup finals, local news sources broadcasted media footage from the 1994 Vancouver Canucks riot, so emotions in 2011 might have been running extra high.
Unlike a lot of people in the audience, I don’t remember the riot. I was nine years old, living in a different province and not nearly as big of a hockey fan as I am now. But Jayme and Youngman make you feel like you were there — with archival, never-before-seen footage, they created a tension-filled atmosphere during the riot, only to sharply contrast it with stillness and quiet as the city reeled from what had just happened.
Photos and videos were posted online of people at the riots, so the VPD and general public were able to use the Internet to identify and prosecute rioters. But this quickly backfired — what started as attempts to hold rioters accountable quickly became a mob of its own.
The shaming comments from citizens online were almost as bad as the actions they were condemning in others, but they were met with little controversy because of how the riot negatively painted the city. Mob mentality can transfer from the streets to behind screens.
Jayme and Youngman delved into key questions: At what point do the repercussions stop fitting the crime? Does a recording or picture, which is just one perspective on the situation, really warrant death threats?
Despite how heavy the movie was at times, it was balanced out with more lighthearted interview footage. At one point, the whole audience chuckled as someone recalled stealing a bottle of maple syrup.
The filmmakers don’t present a viewpoint that those who were involved in the riots shouldn’t have been prosecuted because they got caught up in the mob or were in the wrong place at the wrong time. They simply explore that for an event many view as black-and-white, there is so much more grey than you’d believe.
“At the beginning of the day, [the photos and videos] were just one little piece of something much bigger,” Sarah McCusker, one of the documentary’s subjects, said in a Q&A after the screening.
When Youngman and Jayme met in 2021, they thought "maybe this is the right time, 10 years [have] passed, maybe we can actually do some much-needed reflection," said Jayme in the Q&A. “Because we both felt that this story kind of got swept under the rug. We actually haven't had this discussion about why this happened.”
“One of the questions that we always get is, ‘Will this happen again?’ and one of the [film’s] goals is to start this discussion so that it doesn't happen again,” said Jayme.
Whether you are a sports fan or hater, a Vancouverite or an out-of-towner, this is a must-see for anyone interested in how media shapes how we see and understand public actions. Watch it next summer on ESPN.