Neil Peart Documentary No One’s Disciple Gets First Trailer
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The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation has released the first trailer for No One's Disciple, a documentary about the late Rush drummer Neil Peart, featuring interviews with bandmates Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson alongside fellow drummers Chad Smith of Red Hot Chili Peppers and Stewart Copeland of the Police. The film matters as a long-overdue tribute to a musician widely regarded as one of rock's finest drummers, with Lee saying in the trailer that the band "never really were able to pay tribute to him" after his death in 2020, adding that this "weighed on me a lot". The documentary also draws on archival footage of Peart himself, including him recalling how, aged 11 or 12, he began "banging around the house and smashing up pots and pans", which led his parents to buy him drumsticks.
Co-directed by Scot McFadyen and Sam Dunn, No One's Disciple is set to premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on 16 September, though no wider release date has yet been announced. Meanwhile, Lee and Lifeson are currently touring extensively as part of their Fifty Something World Tour, with drummer Anika Nilles standing in for Peart on stage.
- CBC releases first trailer for Neil Peart documentary No One's Disciple
- Features Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson, Chad Smith and Stewart Copeland
- Premieres at Toronto International Film Festival on 16 September
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Rush were a Canadian rock trio known for complex, technically demanding music, and their drummer Neil Peart was widely considered one of the greatest to play the instrument, admired for both his technique and his lyric-writing. Peart died in January 2020 after a long illness, and the surviving members, bassist and singer Geddy Lee and guitarist Alex Lifeson, have said they never got the chance to properly honour him at the time.
No One's Disciple is a new documentary about Peart's life and career, made by directors Scot McFadyen and Sam Dunn, who have previously made other music documentaries. It combines old footage of Peart himself with new interviews from Lee and Lifeson, as well as other well-known drummers who admired his work.
Rush stopped touring after Peart's declining health forced the band off the road, and he passed away a few years later. Lee and Lifeson have since returned to performing together with a different drummer standing in, which is part of why a documentary revisiting Peart's legacy carries particular significance for fans of the band.
Full account
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation has released the first trailer for No One's Disciple, a documentary charting the life of the late Rush drummer Neil Peart. Co-directed by Scot McFadyen and Sam Dunn, the film draws on archival interview footage of Peart alongside new contributions from his surviving bandmates Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson. In the preview, Peart recalls his boyhood fascination with drumming, describing how, aged around eleven or twelve, he took to banging on pots and pans around the family home until his parents concluded he simply liked hitting things with sticks.
The documentary also brings in a roster of admiring peers from the drumming world. Both accounts confirm appearances from Chad Smith of the Red Hot Chili Peppers and the Police's Stewart Copeland, while one report additionally names Tool's Danny Carey and Porcupine Tree's Gavin Harrison, describing footage of these musicians jamming through Rush material alongside Lee and Lifeson. Lee is shown reflecting candidly on the difficulty of processing Peart's death, saying that the band never really had the chance to properly honour him afterwards, and that this had weighed on him considerably in the years since.
Peart died in January 2020 at the age of 67 after a private struggle with brain cancer, a diagnosis he had largely kept out of the public eye. Accounts of the film's release plans vary: one report states that No One's Disciple will premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on 16 September, with no wider release date yet confirmed, while another points to a CBC television premiere on 23 September, suggesting the film may be reaching audiences through more than one platform or that broadcast and festival premieres are being treated as separate events.
The trailer's release comes as Lee and Lifeson continue to tour under the Rush banner, performing as part of what has been billed as the Fifty Something anniversary run, with German drummer Anika Nilles stepping in behind the kit in Peart's absence. One outlet frames the trek as a sprawling world tour, while another characterises it more specifically as a reunion outing, though both agree the shows form the backdrop against which this tribute to Peart's legacy is now emerging.
Where outlets differ
Premiere details conflict: one source cites a Toronto International Film Festival premiere on 16 September with no wide release date set, while the other cites a CBC television premiere on 23 September — these may refer to a festival screening versus a broadcast debut, but the reports do not reconcile them.
The list of drummers featured differs: one source names only Chad Smith and Stewart Copeland as fellow drummers appearing alongside Lee and Lifeson, while the other also includes Danny Carey (Tool) and Gavin Harrison (Porcupine Tree), and frames their appearances as jamming on Rush songs rather than simply giving interviews.
Only one source provides detail on the cause and circumstances of Peart's death (brain cancer, age 67, kept private), while the other alludes to his passing without elaborating on the cause.
The current Lee/Lifeson tour is described differently — one report calls it a large-scale 'world tour', the other a 'reunion tour' — a subtle difference in emphasis on the nature of the trek.
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