Spike Lee kündigt Off The Wall -Dokumentation an

Thommy Hilfinger präsentiert seine neue Herbst/Winter-Collection zu Musik vom OFF THE WALL-Album auf der New York Fashion Week

Die Doku lieft gestern in der UK, Dänemark, Belgien, Australien im TV. Da müsste auch Deutschland endlich mal dran sein.

Beispielhaft die Auswirkung in der UK auf i-tunes:

• #3 Off the Wall
• #36 The Essential Michael Jackson
• #43 Number Ones
• #48 Thriller
• #151 Bad
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

  
  

Die OTW-Wall-Doku, die in den USA auf Showtime ausgestrahlt wurde ist bei dem Sender die Musikdoku, die dort die höchsten Einschaltquoten aller Zeiten erreicht hat und bei den Dokumentationen generell liegt sie auf Platz 2.

BTW immer noch keine Ausstrahlung in Deutschland in Sicht oder?

Ich freue mich natürlich über die Ausstrahlung, hätte mit aber einen Sender gewünscht wo mehr Einschaltuote garantiert wäre.

Spike Lee kehrt mit der Ausstrahlung der OTW-Doku auf das Montreal International Black Film-Festival zurück. Er steht dort auch für Q&A-Session zur Verfügung.


Spike Lee returns to Montreal International Black Film Festival with Michael Jackson documentary

Malcolm X was clearly a natural for Spike Lee to bring to the screen. But Michael Jackson?

Perhaps not so obvious to some, but it makes perfect sense for those who have followed the arc of Lee’s career. Both Malcolm X and Jackson were African-American icons who made major impacts in their chosen paths, who constantly had to contend with racism (albeit on dramatically different levels and stages) and whose lives ended in such tragedy.

Lee brings his latest, the documentary Michael Jackson’s Journey from Motown to Off the Wall, to the 12th Montreal International Black Film Festival team, which runs from Sept. 28 to Oct. 2. As an added bonus, Lee will not only attend the Oct. 1 screening of the film at Concordia’s Hall Building Alumni Auditorium, he will also conduct a Q&A following it.

Michael Jackson’s Journey, which made its debut at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year, could almost be construed as a prequel to the director’s 2012 doc Bad 25, which marked the 25th anniversary of the Jackson disc Bad.

But as the title to the new doc suggests, this one goes back to the King of Pop’s beginnings in 1965, when he was but a more innocent Prince of Pop, singing/strutting along with his brothers as the Jackson 5. Through vintage interview and concert footage, the film follows Jackson through the split from Motown to his groundbreaking 1979 solo disc, Off the Wall.

Like much of Lee’s work, this one is illuminating, often provocative and unfailingly entertaining. There is one particularly telling scene, outside the period chronicled, during a 1981 concert, in which Jackson tells the crowd he doesn’t want to do any more “old stuff” because it’s, well, “old” – and so, too, are his brothers. Despite the crowd’s clamouring for past hits, Jackson announces he prefers to do new stuff. Nonetheless, he acquiesces to their demands, but for the benefit of the crowd – and not his brothers. Talk about foreshadowing.

Lee has selected interview footage from an incredibly vast and rather eclectic bunch: Berry Gordy Jr., Brooke *******, Diana Ross, Fred Astaire, Gene Kelly, Quincy Jones, Sammy Davis Jr., Sidney Lumet and Kobe Bryant.

As to what might have triggered Lee’s fascination with Jackson, perhaps this testimony from Lumet – who directed him in the smash 1978 musical The Wiz – might offer insight: “Michael may be the purest talent I’ve ever seen. He’s incapable of a false moment.” Or this nugget from basketball great Bryant: “It’s easy for people to get sidetracked. They talk about his complexion. They don’t focus on what this man was.”

True. Jackson, who died seven years ago, was a perfectionist, and he created some of the most memorable music and dance in the last half-century. Perhaps this doc will be a reminder for those more familiar with his later-life slide, when Jackson became vilified by many.

Lee also offers another explanation for his interest in Jackson.

“He was born in ’58; I was born in ’57,” Lee says in a phone interview. “We’re from the same era. And I’m a big Michael Jackson fan, and this latest is another part of his story.”

But Lee concedes his goal was also to help dispel the more negative images associated with Jackson in his later years.

“When you’re one of the biggest ever, that’s going to happen. That was one of the chief reasons I did this. I wanted to focus on Michael Jackson’s genius, his humanity, his craft, his singing, his dancing … ”

Lee last appeared at the Montreal International Black Film Festival in 2014, when he was presented with the festival’s inaugural Pioneer Award to commemorate the 25th anniversary of his landmark film, Do the Right Thing.

And a pioneer, Lee is. He has gone into areas, particularly on the racial and political fronts, where few filmmakers have delved. He is also unpredictable.

“I have to keep myself alert,” says Lee, whose next project is a 10-part Netflix series based on his first film, She’s Gotta Have It. “If I keep on doing the same thing again, it will be boring.”

Regardless, Lee is obviously much aware of the madness going on around him. Just this week alone, there have been two incidents – in Charlotte, N.C. and Tulsa, Okla.– in which police shot and killed two African-Americans under questionable circumstances.

“I’m trying to cope with a lot of prayer,” he says. “It’s a crazy, crazy world.”

But he acknowledges that the Black Lives Matter movement is making an impact, bringing these issues to the forefront.

“I think that non-black, non-brown people are suddenly coming to the realization that they’ve had a somewhat privileged life. Non-brown, non-black people are not being shot down all over America. This happens to be a fact.”

Nor has the presence of Donald Trump helped to diffuse racial tensions.

“The man appeals to the lowest common denominator – so there you go,” Lee says. “I fear (not just for the U.S., but for) the world if he gets elected. The president of the U.S. has the digits to the nuclear bomb. For Donald Trump to have the nuclear code, that’s nightmarish. That’s worse than Stanley Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove.”

Any thoughts about moving to these parts should The Donald get in?

“I hope I don’t have to move, but … Toronto would be great, if I had to go,” he says, before quickly adding: “I love Montreal, but I don’t speak French.”

It’s because Lee is a huge hoops fan (of the New York Knicks) and Toronto has an NBA team, the Raptors, and we don’t, right?

Lee simply laughs. “We’re going to kick the Raptors in the butt this year. But I like Les Habitants,” Rangers fan Lee says in reference to our Habs. “I always respect greatness.”

As do we.

AT A GLANCE

The Montreal International Black Film Festival runs from Sept. 28 to Oct. 2 at various venues. Spike Lee’s documentary Michael Jackson’s Journey from Motown to Off the Wall is being screened Oct. 1 at 7 p.m. at Concordia’s Hall Building Alumni Auditorium (H-110), 1455 de Maisonneuve Blvd. W. Lee will be on hand for the screening and for a Q&A following it. Tickets are $35. For full festival program and ticket information, visit montrealblackfilm.com

http://montrealgazette.com/entertain...on-documentary