Two Saint John filmmakers plan to release a documentary film later this summer celebrating Quality Block Party’s inaugural run.
If you attended any shows during Quality Block Party in Saint John last month, you probably saw Nick LeBlanc and Mike Roy. They were the two guys with cameras and microphones recording just about everything that happened.
The two filmmakers began working together this past winter documenting Saint John’s local music scene, so when they heard about Quality Block Party they immediately opened a conversation with organizers about documenting the event.
“We knew there was an important story to be told here,” said Nick LeBlanc. “One that is a monumental step in bringing vibrancy to the Saint John music scene, and our city in general. Where this is such a ‘coming together’ story of our community, we knew we had to cover the whole story.
“We have such amazing talent here and the Quality Block Party was really a celebration of our own,” he said. “It was amazing to see all my friends deliver some of the best performances to date. There must have been something in the air that weekend and it was well captured on film.”
LeBlanc and Roy have released a trailer for their short film/documentary expected to be ready for screening later this summer, and are now sorting through all the footage they collected.
“We start our post-production for our short documentary this week,” said Leblanc. “We are aiming to have it run about 20 minutes in length. As of now, we plan on doing the first screening in Saint John in August and screenings in Fredericton and Moncton as well.”
While organizers have yet to make an official announcement about if and when Quality Block Party will happen again (although the rumour mill says August?), LeBlanc and Roy’s work will no doubt prove to be an important document of this incredible and long overdue Saint John celebration.
“We hope ten years from now we as a Quality Block community can look back at the film and say, ‘That’s how it all began, and look how far we’ve come’,” said LeBlanc.
