Eight months following its world premiere at the Kingston Canadian Film Festival, Candian indie-folk collective, The Gertrudes, have publicly released the music video for Carry On, a song from the band's 2023 album, Just To Please You.

Produced by Kingston videographer, filmmaker, musician and The Gertrudes band member, Josh Lyon, the video for Carry On—shot, edited and produced in Kingston, Ontario—has gone on to win a host of accolades and awards since it's original (and only screening) on March 4, 2024 at the Kingston Canadian Film Festival. They include:

Winner: Best Story at Experimental, Dance, and Music Film Festival, LA/Toronto, 2024
Douglas Falconer Award for Excellence in Film (dir.), Slaight Music Video Showcase, Kingston Canadian Film Festival, 2024
Best Dance Video at Munich Music Video Awards, 2024
Official Selection, Tokyo International Short Film Festival 2024
Official Selection, Luleå International Film Festival, Sweden, 2024
Official Selection, Toronto Indie Filmmakers Festival, 2024
Art Film & Music Video Awards Nominee, London, 2024

For Lyon, it's not the first time his film and video work has been critically acknowledged. His collaboration with with musician and animator Kelsey McNulty on her musical project, Good Fortune, won the Best Direction Award at the Experimental, Dance & Music Film Festival in June 2023. "It’s a wonderful honour for a filmmaker to have their work screened at a festival, let alone recognized with an award," Lyon related. "With something so personal as [the Carry On video] and what I wanted to explore and express with it, it’s always amazing when someone else gets it, or in some way recognizes or relates to it. There’s something just so deeply gratifying to have your work resonate with an audience, even if it’s just one other person."

The song, Carry On, was partially inspired by a 2022 house fire in Kingston's Skeleton Park neighbourhood, where songwriters Greg Tilson and Annie Clifford live. It's an experience to which Lyon relates. "One night, the house next door to mine caught fire," he recalls. "Unlike the fire about which [Carry On] was written, sadly there wasn't a casualty."

Carry On appeared on The Gertrudes' 2023 full-length album, Just To Please You. Not released as a single, Lyon chose the track for the Kingston Canadian Film Festival's Slaight Video Music Showcase program because of the song's personal relevance. "As I listened back through the songs from that record, the poignancy of having spent a summer in Kingston choking on wildfire smoke while recollecting the tragic house fire that inspired the song created a strong visual… of loneliness, isolation, community and perseverance in the face of crisis - whether global or intimately personal," explained Lyon. In his words, the result is, "A music video that grapples with the tension between modes of survival and resilience during times of crisis."

The video for Carry On shifts between two improvised dance sequences and an outdoor group campfire that with Lyon describes as, "…a post-apocalyptic survival kind of atmosphere" featuring bandmates Annie Clifford, Mariah Horner, Jason Erb, Pete Bowers among others. Lyon cast Krystal Leung after meeting her at the 2023 K-Town Showdown dance battle. "She struck me as the perfect dancer to portray determination to keep moving even in the isolation of the smothering smoke," Lyon recounted. Sasha Jimenez French, Lyon's wife, Corky Peppley and friend Sarah Wiseman were also featured dancers in the video. "[Sasha Jimenez French] was the perfect counterpoint to Krystal in her movement vocabulary and style," Lyon added. "All four dancers were so beautifully able to poetically convey with their bodies that which would not have been possible to express with words or dialogue."

Lyon's creative vision for the Carry On video was highly influenced by world events and personal experience. "I was really struggling with the aftermath of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, and seeing so many people having to re-learn or maybe learn for the first time how to connect with others, and finally acknowledging—as a society—the cost of loneliness; the cost of isolation," Lyon recalls. "The pandemic really highlighted many things about our society and culture that were already weak spots, including how desperately we need each other in times of crisis. But we were stuck in a situation where the simple act of being together was also potentially dangerous."

For Lyon, the making of the Carry On also had a spiritual dimension. "Film critic Josh Larson posits that movies function in the same way as prayers. This video [for Carry On] is a lament for those still trapped in isolation, for those who have to persevere in grim determination, who go through the motions just to make it through the day," Lyon explained. "It’s also a prayer for reconnection and developing a new understanding of the essential nature of community, an expression of our deep longing for intimacy and togetherness… hopefully some measure of that is conveyed in the visual poetry of the piece and the amazing dancers involved."

Despite being released eight months after its first screening, Lyon remains as enthusiastic as ever about the video. "I’m excited for folks who weren’t able to attend one of the in-person theatrical screenings to finally see the video." For the mosst optimal experience, Lyon's left us with some professional advice: "I’d still recommend watching it on as large a screen as possible in a dark room with a good sound system." Posted: Oct 4, 2024