Ron Mann Directs Music Video Debut

If you're familiar with Toronto director Ron Mann's movies, you likely know that he's a big music fan.

Mann's interest in various genres has been documented in such films as Twist, Imagine The Sound, Listen To The City, Blue Rodeo In Stereovision and last year's Tales Of The Rat Fink, and now he's just completed his first music video: a high definition clip for Prince Edward Island band Two Hours Traffic's "Jezebel."

"After I saw Two Hours Traffic in concert, I told them that if they ever needed a rock video made, to call me," says the award-winning documentarian. "Six months later, they did.

"I really don't do rock videos, but I said yes because they project what Wilco's Jeff Tweedy refers to in the song 'Heavy Metal Drummer' as 'the innocence he has known and lost.' For me, that was the pre-psychedelic summer of 1965 watching Where The Action Is in my parents' den. Two Hours Traffic would fit right in with Paul Revere And The Raiders.

"The early '60s were on my mind in creating the story, which was inspired by the Haley Mills movie, That Darn Cat. Maggie Crow, who we found on Craigslist, stars as a young Miss Mills. The video is also the 'making of' a rock video. I wrote myself in a cameo as the director. The crew made fun of me, as I had double the amount of takes as the incorrigible cat. I'm stoked about the video, but even more excited about my new acting career.""Jezebel" is from Two Hours Traffic's Joel Plaskett-produced Little Jabs album, which will be released by Bumstead Records on July 24.

Here are Two Hours Traffic's summer dates:?
July 16 Lunenburg, NS @ Pearl Theatre
July 22 Hamilton, ON @ Scenefest
July 24 Toronto, ON @ Horseshoe Tavern
July 26 Ottawa, ON @ Live Lounge
July 27 Oshawa, ON @ The Dungeon w/The Spades
July 28-29 Guelph, ON @ Hillside Folk Festival
Aug. 4 New Glasgow, NS @ Riverfront Jubilee w/Sloan
Aug. 11 Halifax, NS @ The Seahorse w/Smothered In Hugs and Museum Pieces
Aug. 19 Port Hawkesbury, NS @ Granville Green