Factory: Manchester From Joy Division to Happy Mondays (2007)

One needs look no further than Factory Records to find out how Manchester, England rose from being a depressive industrial wasteland to the center of a musical revolution, and in this documentary filmmaker Chris Rodley examines just how - with more than a little help from Joy Division and Happy Mondays - music impresario Tony Wilson played a pivotal role in shaping that impressive transformation - all the while hemorrhaging millions in profits due to a series of tragically shortsighted business decisions. Wilson was never about making a profit, but instead releasing the best product possible - even if it wound up costing him a fortune rather than making him one. So while Factory Records played a key role in pioneering Britain's independent pop culture and reshaping the modern musical landscape for decades to come, their fifteen-year reign was bound for self-implosion from the very moment of conception. Punctuated by playful, self-deprecating interviews with everyone from a typically crusty Wilson (at the time receiving intense cancer treatment) to the surviving members of Joy Division, the Happy Mondays, and A Certain Ratio - not to mention various music journalists and other notable contributors to the scene - the film never shies away from addressing the financial hardships endured by the bands and their fearless leader while joyously detailing the experience of being present for what was the musical equivalent of the Big Bang. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi