Plot

1976. Montreal. Eight people who wanted to see and be seen at the trendiest disco will be juggling fame and anonymity until they will be forced to make sober choices in an era when excess was the norm, and when disco was king.

Set in Montreal during the disco phenomenon some 35 years ago, Funkytown follows the life of a group of colorful characters. We follow their lives and tribulations as everyone converges on a regular basis at Montreal's hot disco spot: Starlight. Along the way, several events take place that change these characters' lives. As these characters' lives unfold, the Parti Québécois takes power changing the cultural landscape in Quebec while the disco craze slowly fades. While we keep up with these various characters - it is Bastien who is a central part of this story. His drug addiction, dreams to become an actor and womanizing - make him the "bigger than life" typical 70s character around which the whole story revolves.—S G.

It's 1976, disco is king and the Starlight its primary palace in Montréal. Bastien Lavallée is the hottest guy in town, a radio DJ and the host of Disco Dance Party, the "it" show on television. Bastien used to be a serious actor, until these new gigs became his and his family's meal tickets. Bastien's abandonment of his original dreams, his excesses (especially of cocaine) fueled by this success and his sly neglect of his admiring daughter Cynthia Lavallée is much to the chagrin of his wife Connie Lavallée. The discotheque is owned by Daniel Lefebvre, an astute businessman, but its purchase was financed by his father, the domineering Gilles Lefebvre, a record producer, from under whose control Daniel can't seem to get out. Another star on the Montréal disco scene is Jonathan Aaronson, the openly gay trend-setter and trend reporter on Disco Dance Party. Into this world come Tina and Tino, a couple on and off the dance floor, they who won a dance contest at the Starlight, which results in them becoming the hot new couple on Disco Dance Party. Tino is fighting his own battles behind the scenes, both external ones with his mother about the family restaurant business, and internal ones about his hidden homosexual orientation which he denies to himself. The hedonism of the time is epitomized by Adriana, a beautiful but basically talentless woman who can get whatever she wants because of her looks, and if she sleeps with the right people. Conversely, Mimi, one of Gilles' former clients, is on a downward career path as her francophone sound isn't "disco". Those strongly connected to disco music are seemingly unstoppable in whatever they want in life and Montréal seems destined to be a part of this bright future. But four years later, as the province's governing Parti Québecois holds a sovereignty referendum, as past shady deals come to the surface, as disco starts to fade in favor of new wave music, and as what would eventually be known as the AIDS crisis begins, things look a little differently for this group and their futures.—Huggo