What to know
- Antidiva: The Carole Pope Confessions debuted at the Hot Docs Festival, spotlighting the life and career of Canadian music icon Carole Pope, with another screening April 26 before wider release.
- The documentary features insights from artists like Peaches, k.d. lang, and Jann Arden, highlighting Pope’s boundary-pushing work with Rough Trade, whose openly queer lyrics reshaped Canadian music in the ’70s and ’80s.
- After festival screenings, the film heads to select Canadian theatres this summer and will air on CBC platforms — the Documentary Channel (July 19) and CBC Gem (July 24).
Toronto’s esteemed Hot Docs Festival, now in its 33rd year, kicked off Thursday night with the world premiere of Antidiva: The Carole Pope Confessions, about the life and often trying times of the Canadian music icon. At the core of her story is an inspiring unwavering commitment to her art and to herself, no matter the cost.
Weighing in on her story, each with a unique personal perspective, is Peaches — an executive producer on the film — k.d. Lang, Jann Arden, George Stroumboulopoulos, Rufus Wainwright, Sebastian Bach, Jeanne Beker, and others.
Pope told the audience at Hot Docs Cinema she is “happy that it’s out there. I’m happy that people got to see it and I loved the audience’s reaction.”
There is another screening Sunday (April 26) at 1:30 p.m., then it will hit select Canadian theatres this summer and premiere on the Documentary Channel, July 19 and CBC Gem July 24.
Pope, whose platinum-selling 80s synth-pop band Rough Trade with Kevan Staples, was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame in 2023, pushed boundaries at the time with lyrics about same-sex desire that was played on commercial radio.
Lines like “she makes me cream my jeans when she comes my way” in “High School Confidential” and “love is a crime when you don’t fit the plan” in “Crimes of Passion” let young queer listeners know they were not alone. Some, like lang, Arden and Peaches were inspired to get into music themselves.
As Mayor Olivia Chow put it at the premiere, Pope was “fierce and fearless.”
Clearly knowing her music, she said, “Rough Trade didn’t just make music, they changed what you were allowed to hear, what you were allowed to say, what you were allowed to be. ‘ High School Confidential’ put that raw energy, that punk energy, that queer desire, right on daytime radio. Imagine that! And nothing was quite the same after that.
“And the film travels through all of it. The swagger. The seductions. The grief of the AIDS crisis. And the joy. Because with Carole, there is always joy and energy in there.”
At the heart of Antidiva is the once-in-a-life-time friendship between Pope and Staples, which morphed from a five-year romantic relationship to a deep platonic love and respect that lasted until Staples’ passing in March 2025.
Director Michelle Mama told the audience at Hot Docs Cinema that she often refers to the doc as “The Ballad of Carole and Kevan.”
In a post-screening Q&A, she said as MuchMusic “weirdo,” who used to record videos on Betamax and code them, she first viewed Pope, as “the icon, the mystery,” but after meeting her 12 years ago, and slowly becoming friends, “the person emerged and the realities of her life as an artist, as a woman, and all that iconography and mythology fell apart and I realized this is a person whose story should be told, needs to be told, hasn’t been told.”
Said Pope finally agreed. “I wanted the story told. I wanted people to know about Rough Trade. I think that we had a very innovative band, and also about the music scene in the 70s and 80s in Toronto. That has to be out there.”
Pope, who turns 80 in August, released her memoir Anti Diva: An Autobiography, back in 2000. She is now looking for a lead producer for her latest project, Rough Trade The Musical, the story of her brother Howard, a musician and activist in New York at the height of the AIDS crisis.
