director matt
Nirvanna The Band The Show The Movie is not a video game movie. It’s not based on a video game property, or even features video games in its plot in a primary way. But from its opening moments, it’s clear that its creators and its director, Matt Johnson, are video game fans, and specifically fans of 16-bit RPGs. Johnson and his creative partner, Jay McCarrol, are also the creators of the viral Wii Shop Update Day video where they run down an impressive list of classic video game titles set to the tune of the Wii’s Shop Channel music.
Matt confirms his favourite video game is Baldur’s Gate 2. There’s a lot of video game chat here; I captured most of them in the tags but it’s an interesting read regardless!
The podcast was re-released August 6 2026 with video of the interview.
Now the two adapt the series for big screen (via Elevation Pictures ), and while the medium may have changed, Johnson and McCarrol’s premise remains the same: their fictionalized selves, Matt and Jay, are determined to fulfill their lifelong dream of playing a gig at Toronto’s famed club the Rivoli.
But if you know where to look – both inside TIFF and outside – there are signs of a new wave of Toronto-based filmmakers who are challenging whatever musty definition of Canadian cinema still haunts the industry. Their work is raw and scrappy, urgent and intense, and driven by a keen sense of frustration – with life, with art and with the system that is supposed to produce homegrown films in the first place. The filmmakers make do with little money and either shun traditional funding bodies or partner with them reluctantly. They focus on the vast, diverse identities that make up Canadian culture, but do not feel bound by any staid, maple-syrup-swigging, hockey-loving, Tragically Hip-listening presuppositions.
Barry released a semi-follow up to the above article, highlighting new Toronto filmmakers (including Ben Petrie!), and an update on the directors profiled in the above article. You can read that here or here.
Just off Toronto’s West Queen West, a few blocks past Trinity Bellwoods Park, looms a narrow three-storey Victorian home in dusty red brick. Its front parlour has housed a number of short-lived enterprises: art galleries and jewellery stores, cafés and Web-design firms. But never has it been so fruitfully commandeered as by its current tenants. These are the headquarters of Zapruder Films. And it’s here that director Matt Johnson – alongside the faithful cadre of producers, editors, cameramen and interns that constitute his crew – furiously, indefatigably toils.