Lonely Boy

Lonely Boy

Lonely Boy
&
| 26 min
Free
streaming

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DVD

This short film portrays the story of singer Paul Anka, who rose from obscurity to become the idol of millions of adolescent fans around the world. Taking a candid look at both sides of the footlights, this film examines the marketing machine behind a generation of pop singers. Interviews with Anka and his manager reveal their perspective on the industry.

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Lonely Boy, Wolf Koenig & Roman Kroitor, provided by the National Film Board of Canada

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Credits
  • direction
    Wolf Koenig
    Roman Kroitor
  • camera
    Wolf Koenig
  • editing
    John Spotton
    Guy L. Coté
  • sound recording
    Marcel Carrière
    Ron Alexander
  • sound editing
    Kathleen Shannon
  • producer
    Roman Kroitor
  • executive producer
    Tom Daly
  • narrator
    Strowan Robertson
 See also
Music
All subjects
Spotlight on Canadian Musicians
Featured Films
Fascinating People
NFB from Coast-to-Coast: Spotlight on Quebec-Atlantic
Classic Docs
All channels
Add a new comment
  • None

    He was the "Original" Canadian Idol, he helped David Foster get his foot in the door and together they launched the Career of Michael Buble. He was the First Canadian Act to do American Bandstand and he also did Ed Sullivan as well. He was so far apart from the "Other" Teen Idols of that time becuase he "Wrote" what he sang. "My Way" is next to "Yesterday" by The Beatles the most covered song in Music. He also did the Theme to The Tonight Show starring Johnny Carson so Canadian Culture was part of US Culture from 1962-1992. Then he also holds the distinction of having along with Smokey Robinson & The Isley Brothers the distinction of having Hits in every single decade since the 1950's which was the beginning of Rock & Roll.

    None, 3 Dec 2020
  • garyh

    Wonderful portrait of a young, talented and Canadian singer-songwriter. Like The Beatles, he would get better as he got older.

    garyh, 28 Jul 2020
  • RichardAKudra

    LandLady and I just watched this. I found it wonderful that he found the drive to compel himself to achieve his dream. LandLady just screamed like she was a teenager again~!

    RichardAKudra, 2 Apr 2015
  • JasonDanielBaker

    You can compare his popularity with Justin Bieber's but Paul Anka was a lot more articulate and erudite at a younger age. Jason Daniel Baker

    JasonDanielBaker, 1 May 2013
  • kcollins

    Love this film. The Biebs has some work to do to catch up to Paul.

    kcollins, 30 Apr 2013

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