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Summer 2000: The X-Cetra Story

Play trailer Poster for Summer 2000: The X-Cetra Story 2026 1h 44m Documentary Music Play Trailer Watchlist
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In the summer of 2000, four pre-teen friends formed a band called X-Cetra and burned a homemade album onto a few CD-Rs. The following year, consumed by adolescent concerns of boys and drug store shoplifting, their labor of love was quickly forgotten.... Until 20 years later, when someone uploaded it online. At first, it garnered a small base of outsider-art fans, but soon it was discovered by record labels, sampled by mainstream artists, and eventually the subject of a Rolling Stone article. With their teen dreams of pop stardom coming true decades later, X-Cetra reunites to see if they can rekindle the unselfconscious girlhood they'd captured in the album those many years ago.

Critics Reviews

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Kimberley Jones Austin Chronicle 1h
Summer 2000 is deceptively light -- in the way it pulls into focus the four women’s different experiences, and how it articulates the magic in shared make-believe. So light, in fact, I felt my heart lift after 104 minutes in its company. Go to Full Review Kate Erbland IndieWire 20h
B+
Not everything is resolved, but that’s hardly the intent here. Instead, it’s a question of the true nature of discovery, and how much people are willing to see of themselves. Go to Full Review Tina Kakadelis Film Obsessive 1d
Summer 2000: The X-Cetra Story is for the rambunctious, fierce girls who saw the endlessness of adolescence as a chance to try a million different things. To act, to sing, to borrow a line from Hamlet, to dream. Go to Full Review Peter Martin ScreenAnarchy 1d
Happily for Ayden, Jessica, Janet and Mary, their friendship sparks again instantly, which is just one of the reasons why Summer 2000: The X-Cetra Story is a tremendous blast to watch and experience, even if you're not, somehow, a fan of their music. Go to Full Review Stephen Saito Moveable Fest 1d
A pure, unfiltered blast of joy. Go to Full Review Read all reviews

Cast & Crew

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Ayden Mayeri

Director

Ayden Mayeri

Self

Jessica Hall

Self

Janet Kariuki

Self

Mary Washburn

Self

Robin O'Brien

Self
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Summer 2000: The X-Cetra Story

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Movie Info

Synopsis In the summer of 2000, four pre-teen friends formed a band called X-Cetra and burned a homemade album onto a few CD-Rs. The following year, consumed by adolescent concerns of boys and drug store shoplifting, their labor of love was quickly forgotten.... Until 20 years later, when someone uploaded it online. At first, it garnered a small base of outsider-art fans, but soon it was discovered by record labels, sampled by mainstream artists, and eventually the subject of a Rolling Stone article. With their teen dreams of pop stardom coming true decades later, X-Cetra reunites to see if they can rekindle the unselfconscious girlhood they'd captured in the album those many years ago.
Director
Ayden Mayeri
Producer
Ayden Mayeri, Barry Rothbart, Rachael Fung
Screenwriter
Ayden Mayeri, Barry Rothbart
Production Co
Grief Party Inc., Handsome Boy Productions, Extra A Productions
Genre
Documentary, Music
Original Language
English
Runtime
1h 44m