Aug. 19, 2009 - Issue #722: Edmonton Blues Festival 2009

Open Up Your Mouth And Say ... Mr. Chi Pig

Triumph of the Pig: Documentary brings SNFU frontman's life into focus

Meeting your idols can be totally exhilarating or completely disappointing. More often than not, it's the latter. Artists are ordinary people too, with ordinary problems. For Edmonton-born filmmaker Craig Laviolette, however, he had the rare pleasure of developing a friendship with SNFU's Mr. Chi Pig after moving to Vancouver and coincidentally frequenting the bar where Chi worked.

"I was hanging out at a bar here [in Vancouver] called the Cobalt. Chi ended up working there. That's how I got to know him. He was just a busser when I met him, about two years ago."

What developed over the next two years was a casual acquaintance-turned-comraderie. Laviolette was looking for his first full-length film project, and in a strange coincidence, it just so happened that the Cobalt's busser/karaoke host had a story to tell.

"In the beginning I was just looking for a feature-length project to work on. I started to get to know Chi while he hosted karaoke night, from the stories he was willing to share, of what he's gone through."

In the end, Laviolette and co-producer Sean Shaul amassed a wealth of impressive interviews and documented time spent with Chi Pig in the rockumentary Open Your Mouth and Say ... Mr. Chi Pig. Laviolette wanted an unbiased, unblinking look at Chi Pig's career. What emerged were years of broken stories, and inspiring findings about one of Canada's most loved punk bands.

"In doing research and contacting people and bands, we feature Jello Biafra of the Dead Kennedys, Chuck Dukowski from Black Flag, Shawn Stern of Youth Brigade, even as far-reaching as Matthew Good and Brendan Canning [of Broken Social Scene]. To see his influence outside of punk, and in punk, was amazing."

The band's tumultuous history, however, has left Chi Pig in limbo over the years—a journey that Laviolette was eager to explore.

"It's a really touching story that a lot of people can appreciate ... it's the story of someone who went through a lot of problems in their life: undiagnosed mental disorders, struggled with drug addiction, was homeless for awhile, and it's what rock 'n' roll did to him since he was 18 years old. This was all he did. When it ended, he didn't know what to do."

The film's trailer on YouTube has enjoyed international attention, and the film continues to expand its audience beyond SNFU's fan base to the independent film festival circuit. According to Laviolette, it's the humanizing process of telling Chi Pig's story that is capturing audiences.

"We follow the journey of him deciding to get the band back together playing the 25th anniversary show, to where he is now, where they just returned from a big European tour, they're headlining Unrest Fest in Edmonton and they're back on top again. To see someone's transformation in front of their eyes is what's gonna draw people to the show." V

Tue, Aug 25 (7 pm)
Open Your Mouth and Say ... Mr. Chi Pig
Stanley A. Milner Library Theatre, free 

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