If you're not a fan of the Canadian rock band Rush (and many rock critics would belong to this group), the new documentary "Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage" isn't likely to convert you. There's plenty here to back up the theory that the power trio behind the albums "2112" and "Moving Pictures" are terminally uncool guys who write pseudo-intellectual songs with weird time signatures. For example, on stage in the '70s, the band members wore Kimonos.

But in the way of many Canadians, the bandmates -- Geddy Lee, Alex Lifeson and Neil Peart -- come across as such nice, unaffected rock stars. And the on-camera tributes from the likes of Billy Corgan and Kirk Hammett are so heartfelt that the cynical viewer begins to soften and appreciate if not Rush's music, than at least the fervor they stoke among fans -- a bond so intense that drummer Peart appears freaked out by his own legion of admirers.

Co-directors Scot McFadyen and Sam Dunn have wisely chosen not to convert critics but to play to those fans, and the film offers extensive interviews with band members and intimates as well as super-rare footage. "They really cleaned out our office vaults and discovered tapes that we didn't even know were lying around," frontman Geddy Lee said while in Manhattan on Saturday to attend the movie's premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival.

In this exclusive clip from the film, which will be released in theaters in June, the band reflects on its early days playing teen dances in Ontario. Soon after, the members quit high school to devote themselves to Rush.

Geddy Lee sets up the clip: