UK 2019, 97 min Director JAMES ERSKINE
Based on hitherto unreleased audio recordings of interviews from the 1970s, the enigma that is Billie Holliday is explored through personal insights from friends and family—including Count Basie, Charles Mingus, Sarah Vaughan, and Tony Bennett—in a rare look at a genius whose first-hand experience of racism and segregation continues to pull at our heart strings through that voice, that presence. In this tender portrait of the iconic chanteuse, Billie chronicles Holliday’s turbulent life through the work of journalist Linda Lipnack Kuehl, who set out in 1971 to write the definitive Lady Day biography, tracking down those closest to her and recording hundreds of hours of testimony with them. Kuel died before finishing the book, and the tapes went unused until they were rescued for Billie.