Untittled Who's Emma? Documentary (Lyndall Musselman, 2009)
Lyndall came over and showed us an early cut of her upcoming doc about Toronto's legendary old collectively run space, Who's Emma?, that served as a book & record store, an all-ages venue, an activist space, and, perhaps unintentionally, a social experiment.

This was a great opportunity to learn a lot about the ambitions and though processes that went into the creation of this place and also the shifts and attitudes that lead to its demise. To describe the structure quickly and loosely it went down like this: Trent professor with Anarchist leanings and an appreciation for 90s hardcore a la Los Crudos and Born Against started up this idea for a space that would function collectively on anarcho punk principles. From initial meetings they decided on how the space would function with a non-oppressive structure including a day of the week in which the space would be a women's space only, a policy against carrying music by major labels, and (according to the doc, though I never saw any indication of this when I was there) a bartering system for trading music. Once with people and the ideas were I motion, according to the doc, Alan then stepped back and the space began to be recognized globally as a DIY anarcho punk destination in the pages of zines like Profane Existence (and a destination for a teenage Tops and myself who were loading up on sweet sweet punk rock vinyl).

So for a good chunk of the 90s there were years of rockin' shows, lively debates and dissemination of radical material. Lyndall draws on the history and geography of the Kensington Market as a significant home to the space. For one, it's close to where Emma Goldman lived in Toronto while in exile from the US. It's also has a long history of not only being home to various ethnic groups since the dawning of the 20th century, but also an eclectic place with a strong pedestrian vibe and a deep infestation of hippies and crusty punks. Here Alan's own 16mm footage of the market, taken during the 90s, is a wonderful contribution to the film.

With a thriving scene comes drama. It begins with a Drop Dead show in which someone brought their dog down with them to the show space. The band, hardcore vegans that they are, started shouting down the guy for being cruel to his dog. This is an example of the way in which the 90s anarcho punk scene, awesome and thriving as it was, could sometimes be so full of assholes. I mean the guy who brought his dog to the venue was clearly a jerk, no argument, but that the band took it upon themselves to humiliate and make an example of this guy in front of his friends was such a classic example of this overbearing and shitty nature of political hardcore punk of that era. I saw shit like that at Submission Hold shows where teenage punks would be too loud while they describe their songs and rather than deal with the situation diplomatically they decided to make a public example of the people and then, in a sick way, brought their politics into it saying that it was misogyny (not the booze apparently) that made them talk over Jen and Andy. "Some people" Jen said, "get really uncomfortable when they hear a woman speaking their mind." Never mind that it was a guy and a woman making all that noise. That made me sad. Not just because I really like Submission Hold (or Drop Dead to take the Lyndall's example) but because what would have made constructive exchanges really just came off like someone with a microphone making themselves feel good by tearing someone apart in front of their friends. That's kind of fucked up and oppressive in it's own way isn't it?

Back to the Doc. The following happened: people started ripping off the store. As it turned out, people stealing from the store were individuals who had keys to the space. A lot of the volunteers interviewed were pinpointing this as the beginning of the end. What is great in the doc is the debate and diverging of opinions surrounding Who's Emma? being robbed and the staff there calling the police. A former member of the collective recalls biking by and seeing the police outside of the store and being like, "oh my god, why are the police outside of Who's Emma? we have to get them out of there!!" and discovering to her surprise that they had actually been called by members of the collective. That was a great part.

In the end you get a sense that Who's Emma? was a utopian social experiment that eventually failed - betrayed by it's own community. Without being a total downer the doc points out that the culture fostered by the space grew into mass events like Active Resistance and groups like OCAP. Good stuff!!