Hellbound.ca's Sean Palmerston has issued an interview with Banger Films' Sam Dunn and Scot McFadyen regarding the new documentary RUSH: Beyond The Lighted Stage. The following is an excerpt:

Q: I wanted to ask you about some of the archival footage that is used in the film. First off, there is live footage with John Rutsey still on drums that is taken from what looks like a television show. Where is that from?

Sam: "That was from a local variety show called Bandstand that was filmed at a high school in St. Catharines, Ontario. It was a show that was made and shown on a local CBC affiliate. That footage had apparently been lost for a long time and we found it when searching through boxes of archives in the Anthem Records basement. It was on a very old type of videotape and on the outside of the box was a note asking “What the hell is this?” We sent the video off to Holland, to the one place in the world that could transfer this type of video to see what was on it and then when it came back we found it was this golden treasure. Anthem had assumed that it was long lost, so that was a major score when we found it."

Q: One of the other clips features a very young Alex Lifeson in what looks to be a documentary, arguing with his parents about finishing school. Where did that footage come from? It’s incredible that it is even here.

Sam: "That comes from a documentary that was made called Come On Children by a filmmaker named Alan King. He had this idea about making a documentary about teenagers growing up and wanted to make it in a Cinema Verite style. He auditioned over 500 teenagers from across the province to be part of it and Alex was one of the ones who auditioned and made the cut. They went and took the kids and their parents out to rural Ontario and had them discuss the growing pains of being a teenager at that time. It’s just coincidence that he was picked and then went on to become one of Canada’s most famous musicians."

Q: It seems like the band gave you access to everything. Was that something you requested going into the movie?

Scot: "That was something that we requested going into it, we wanted full access to everything that they had and they agreed to let us do it that way. We were lucky they did, because we were the first to get a lot of that footage, like the Bandstand show with John Rutsey. They really did let us see everything. Sam went over to Geddy’s house and he was pulling out photos that were hidden under floorboards – things like that. They were amazing with us."

Read the complete interview at this location.