Vancouver Canucks Stanley Cup riot is getting its own ESPN 30 for 30 documentary

Mar 24 2023, 5:54 pm

June 15, 2011, was a day nobody in Vancouver will ever forget, and now it’s getting its own ESPN 30 for 30 documentary.

Cars burned, windows were smashed, and stores were looted.

ESPN Films has announced that production has completed on a new documentary detailing Vancouver’s Stanley Cup riot in 2011 after the Canucks lost in Game 7 on home ice to the Boston Bruins.

I’m Just Here for the Riot is directed by local filmmakers Asia Youngman and Kat Jayme. Jayme is, of course, well-known for her recent documentaries about the Vancouver Grizzlies.

Jayme and Youngman told Daily Hive two years ago that they were involved in an ESPN collaboration.

“I think everyone in Vancouver can remember exactly where they were when the riots happened. It’s always just such an interesting conversation that comes up,” Youngman said.

The Canucks are the only team in NHL history that has never won a Stanley Cup and has also lost in Game 7 of the Cup Final — and they’ve done it twice. Riots followed in the streets of Vancouver both times, in 1994 and 2011.

“We feel like it’s important that we highlight what happened and just get a better understanding of it because it happened twice already in Vancouver, and we don’t want it to happen for a third time.”

“‘I’m Just Here For The Riot’ chronicles the aftermath of the event captured on hundreds of cell phone cameras, with the rioters outed, shamed, and their lives altered forever,” ESPN announced in a press release. “From the mob mentality in the streets to similar vengeance in the online hunting of those responsible, it was a dark moment in the city’s history – one that raised deeper questions about fandom, violence, and the shocking power of an angry crowd.”

Canucks fans have wondered aloud for years if the 2011 Stanley Cup Final would be turned into a 30 for 30 documentary, though this film appears to be focused on the off-ice drama.

“Taking a subject like Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals and the ensuing riot – and using that event to tell an even bigger story about society – is what makes 30 for 30 so special,” said Marsha Cooke, vice president and executive producer of ESPN Films and 30 for 30.

“The filmmakers had a clear POV: they wanted to explain not just what happened, but why. Why do we get so caught up in the emotions of winning and losing? Why do normal people sometimes run amok and do things they regret? And in a world dominated by cell phones and social media, why do we feel compelled to capture everything, no matter how destructive it might be? It is a story about regret and shame, but profoundly, it’s also about how you rebuild, forgive, and try to find something meaningful in the aftermath.”

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