The story nobody filmed

The Pretenders made what many call the greatest rock debut ever, in January 1980, and nobody had chronicled it properly on film until now.

Premiering in Toronto

Joss Crowley's doc "The Pretenders" premieres Sunday at the Toronto International Film Festival.

Akron to a real gang

The film tracks Hynde looking and acting like a biker chick in late '70s Akron, then moving to the U.K. and finding the band she'd been looking for.

Masterpieces and funerals

It covers the original lineup's first five years: more great records arriving alongside band dismissals and deaths.

Ten years of knocking

Crowley chased the story for over a decade with no answer. One meeting about mutual interests in 2023, and within a week they recorded the first interview.

“I kept knocking at the door; didn't get an answer.”

Her ground rules

Archive footage over talking heads. Focus on the band, not on her. And absolutely no "women in rock" framing.

“It would just be a story of the band.”

The fake documentary

Another team was telling her old friends they were making the official Pretenders doc. Friends started calling to say they were filming Tuesday.

“And I'd be like, "We're not doing a documentary!"”

Rather it be true

That settled it. If a version was going out either way, she wanted the one she could vouch for.

“Either you want to do it and you want your story out, or you don't, which I didn't particularly, but if it's going to be out, I'd rather know that it's true.”

Doing it for Jimmy

James Honeyman-Scott died in 1981 at the band's peak. Hynde never sees his name on greatest-guitarist lists, and he isn't here to argue his case.

“He's not here, so I thought I could do it for him.”

She won't watch it

Hynde agreed to appear on camera only for the final interview, and says she probably won't see the finished film. She already lived it once.

“I don't think I wanna go through it all again.”