England’s most daring popstar, David Bowie, had a biographic documentary made about him which was released in cinemas late last year. The cinematic masterpiece found before us is soon to be officially released to watch from the comfort of everyone’s own home. It will originally be coming out on the 29th of April at 8:00 pm on HBO.
The docufilm, named after one of Bowie’s most beloved songs “Moonage Daydream”, was written, directed and proudly produced by the reputable and Emmy-winning filmmaker, Brett Morgen. Well known for making a documentary about Kurt Cobain back in 2015 (Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck).
In the making of Bowie’s film, he partakes fondly in to the singer’s life in order to uncover the highlights of his musical career. He manages to show the unthinkable endeavours the singer brought to the history of what defines our music today. Bringing unseen footage to the table, Morgen highlights the popstars personal stories and achievements – as well as talents – involving dance, painting, singing, sculpture, acting, writing and many more of his endless creative boundaries.
Morgen was granted full access to his personal archives and endless amounts of footage thanks to the permission of Bowie’s family. This biopsy allowed the filmmaker to retrieve golden material to carve into a valuable sculpture of a film. This included mastered recordings of the musician’s songs as well as hours of his live performances in need to be unveiled.
Bowie had a lifelong collaborator. A musician and sound genius who helped him with the production and sound arrangement of some of his albums named Tony Visconti. He makes an appearance within the making of his film. He adopted the role of music producer for the entirety of the project which includes a 40-song soundtrack of his original material.
The first release of the documentary was in September last year (2022) and premiered at the Cannes Film Festival. It received a great amount of critical acclaim and was voted one of the best documentaries of the year. Officially, it won the WGA Award for Best Documentary Screenplay, CAS for Best Sound Mix Documentary, the MPSE Award for Best Music Editing and was even nominated in a BAFTA for Best Documentary.
“My films are not about presenting facts and information, but trying to present the subjects in a uniquely-cinematic manner,” says Morgen. “I aim to create what you can’t get from a book.” And a mystical cinematic masterpiece was very much achieved. Because the singer was no ordinary pop star, so his documentary didn’t deserve to default to an ordinary film piece.
