The new Dan Mangan documentary, What Happens Next?, won't air on CBC TV in British Columbia until Aug. 25, but we have the brand new trailer. If you don't live in B.C., don't worry. The doc will stream on CBC Music some time after its TV premiere.
What Happens Next? centres on the Vancouver singer-songwriter as he prepares for the biggest show of his career at Vancouver’s Orpheum Theatre. The documentary follows Mangan, his band, his friends and fiancée through video shoots, live shows and a poker game the night before the Orpheum gig. It explores how Mangan got here, and the constantly shifting goals of a man who has achieved so much before the age of 30.
“As weird as it is to have cameras around,” Mangan told us, “it's even weirder to be considered a worthy topic for documenting. It has been an incredible journey the last few years and it's quite surreal seeing some of the highlights played back to us.” He went on to praise his musical and personal collaborators and “the revolving-door band that has kept this train on the tracks.”
The doc was directed and produced by Brent Hodge and CBC Music's Jon Siddall, the team behind last year’s Said the Whale documentary, Winning America. Along with Amazing Factory (the Vancouver production company that created Said the Whale’s Bucky Award-winning “Lines” video), Hodge and Siddall followed Mangan and his band for about eight months, around the release of Mangan’s Juno-winning album, Oh Fortune.
According to co-director Hodge, it’s a study of both Mangan’s meteoric success and his modesty. “Neil Young plays the Orpheum. Bob Dylan plays the Orpheum. Dan has gotten to a level where he’s made it, but he still takes the bus.... He feels like he’s been in the right place at the right time 100 times in a row.”
What Happens Next? airs on CBC TV (British Columbia) on Aug. 25 at 7 p.m.
Related:
Juno roundup: Dan Mangan wins new artist and alternative album of the year
Dan Mangan performs 'Leaves, Trees, Forest' on Q
Watch Winning America: The story of Said the Whale's journey to SXSW