Although a tad threadbare in the talking-head department (here comes Eric Burdon, again), this cheerful history of the British music weekly Melody Maker has enough inside dope to maintain interest.

At its peak in the ’60s and ’70s, as a small handful of former contributors fondly recall, the hugely influential rag could make or break an act, with the Strawbs, Genesis, and Jethro Tull all receiving a massive career boost because somebody at Melody Maker happened to dig them. It was, in fact, the writers who kept MM vital, habitually overriding the diktats of their bosses, who would demand the Monkees for the cover and end up instead with some fresh-off-the-boat freak named Jimi Hendrix. Speaking of which, the Maker’s brilliant in-house photographer Barrie Wentzell—whose images might be the best reason to see this—speaks very movingly of Hendrix. Mick Jagger, among others? Not so much.

Village 8 Cinemas Theatre 6, December 3 (2:30 p.m.); Squamish Lil’Wat Cultural Centre, December 4 (3 p.m.)