WIDE MOUTH MASON:PLAYING WITH POISON DOCUMENTARY TO AIR JANUARY 4, 2001

January 26, 2001

[REGINA, SK]- They are three pretty regular 23-year-old guys from Saskatoon who happen to be members of an excellent rock/blues band that is suddenly attracting international attention. The pressure on them to produce hits and follow the commercial course is huge; but the trio that makes up Wide Mouth Mason are determined to fight for their artistic integrity.

The story of 36 months in the life of this band is told in the documentary Wide Mouth Mason: Playing With Poison. This is partially a concert film; it is mostly a portrait of one of Canada's best young bands. Originally scheduled for telecast on CBC Thursday on November 23, the Saskatchewan-produced documentary now airs on CBC Television on Thursday, January 4 at 8 p.m..

The three talented men in Wide Mouth Mason are Earl Pereira, Safwan Javed and Shaun Verreault, who were boyhood friends and whose bond underscores the success of the band. Their recordings are a unique blend of soulful, poetic lyrics and haunting music that quickly brought the band overnight attention, great reviews and international prominence.

Suddenly they were playing in New York and they were being courted by record companies. Though the documentary follows them to The Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland, to Los Angeles and to Vancouver, it's in Saskatchewan that the band members seem most comfortable, away from the badgering and battling of the music industry.

In Wide Mouth Mason, audiences will see the band play much of their music in many venues. They will see the inner workings of the music world managers, record companies, the entourage that accompanies them. It's a look at how the various elements jockey for position and, in the special case of this band, how the musicians assert their creative independence and fight to have the decisive say in how their affairs are run. "We would dream every night of being able to play our own shows and play our own music," Shaun Verrault says at one point in the documentary, and now that the band is one the brink of superstardom, they are still striving to live with those tenets.

Wide Mouth Mason: Playing With Poison was written and directed by Trevor Grant. It was produced by Kevin De Walt of Minds Eye Entertainment and Trevor Grant of Roadhouse Pictures. Kevin De Walt was the executive producer. Wide Mouth Mason: Playing With Poison was the winner of two Saskatchewan Motion Picture Association (SMPIA) Showcase 2000 Awards for Visual Effects and Original Score.
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