This year’s Sundance brought a slew of musical documentaries featuring some of the industry’s great visionaries.
“The Greatest Night in Pop” pulled back the curtain on one of the most famous nights in music history. On January 28, 1985, everyone from Harry Belafonte to Stevie Wonder to Paul Simon and more came together in one room to create “We Are the World” in aid to famine relief in Ethiopia.
The orchestrator of the original evening, Lionel Richie, narrates the story alongside interviews with artists Bruce Springsteen, Huey Lewis, Dione Warwick, Sheila E. and Cyndi Lauper. Richie details the pure chaos he and Michael Jackson experienced in pulling off this pure miracle recording session on the night of the AMAs.
It is an unbelievable sight to see some of music’s greatest legends standing in a circle singing together. Audiences are privy to a view of artists disarmed without their posse and publicists at hand. Even stars like Bob Dylan shifted uncomfortably in a room of this magnitude.
At the end of the session, Diana Ross fittingly cried “I don’t want this to be over,” as this tremendous evening and our view into it ends all too quickly. However, for re-watching or first-time viewing the documentary is now available on Netflix
Moving to the intrigue of an individual artist, “Eno”' tells the career-spanning story of Brian Eno, the ambient music pioneer and producer for the likes of David Bowie and Talking Head. However, this is not fashioned as your traditional music-doc.
In the press release, director Gary Hustwitz explained, " I kept asking myself, why does my film have to be the same every time it’s shown?” He hoped the film could be more like a concert which is unreplicatable night after night. To combine the uniquely communal experience of live performance with the film medium, “Eno” goes through AI generative software – meaning it makes completely new versions of the film for each screening.
With endless variations on Eno’s archival footage and recent interviews, it’s hard to tell future viewers what to expect from their watch. In the film’s second showing, he detailed his first inspiration from playing with tape records in art school to “Silence: Lectures and Writing” by John Cage.
He later describes his reconciliations with his dichotomy: the intellectual and rock-and-roll. The child who loves playing and the critic who always finds something wrong with it.
Whichever part of “Eno” viewers may get a glimpse of, it is certain to be peppered with the artist’s words of wisdom. After a lifetime as a creative in various mediums, Eno explains art to be about feeling and feeling as the beginning of thought.
Between all his profoundness you still capture endearing moments as Eno yells at the ads on YouTube to ‘Shut up!’
Amidst it all, he leaves the audience with the simple yet endlessly begging question of “why do we like music?”
In another artist-centered doc, “DEVO” delves into the name-sake band through a mix of archival footage, captured live performances, and the artists’ retellings of their journey. Through this medley, the film shows the group through both the lenses of their musical stardom and commitment to social commentary.
“LOLLA: THE STORY OF LOLLAPALOOZA” dives into exactly what its title suggests - the summer of ‘91 when the famous festival first began out of the farewell tour for “Jane’s Addiction.” To celebrate the release of this episodic piece, the lead singer of “Jane’s Addiction,” Perry Farrell, attended.
Alongside films, the Sundance festivities were music-filled from the ASCAP Music Café hosted at Acura House to shows at Park City’s new venue The Marquis. The three-level Marquis allowed for up to 1200 festival-goers to enjoy the sounds of Leon Bridges to Odesza during their first weekend of the festivities.