Lost Angel: The Genius of Judee Sill (Documentaries, Music on Film)
Director: Andy Brown, Brian Lindstrom
Producer: Brian Lindstrom, Peter Kenney
Cinematographer: Andrew Saunderson, Jilann Spitzmiller, John Campbell, John Inwood
This essential music documentary asks: why is the 1970s’ most original and ethereal folk singer almost forgotten today?
In 1971 Los Angeles, Judee Sill was the first artist David Geffen signed to his label Asylum. While the multi-instrumentalist was often compared to Joni Mitchell, both Sill and her music were darker and stranger. She had a troubled youth and a self-destructive streak, but believed her startling blend of folk, classical and gospel was a gift from God. Critics admired her two albums, and she made fans of labelmates including Graham Nash and Jackson Browne, but her music was way too ambitious for FM radio. After a failed record deal, an abusive relationship and a return to her teenage heroin addiction, Sill overdosed in 1979, aged only 35.
If you loved Karen Dalton: In My Own Time (MIFF 2021) or Searching for Sugar Man (MIFF 2012), you can discover another unsung musician in Andy Brown and Brian Lindstrom’s gentle, imaginative documentary, which celebrates Sill’s complicated talent. Her hidden self emerges in archival interviews and extracts from her notebooks, while contemporary artists including Weyes Blood, Fleet Foxes and Big Thief’s Adrienne Lenker explain her songs’ impact, and Sam Niemann’s gorgeous 70s-style animations – inspired by Sill’s own drawings – pull you softly into her angelic world.
“One of the most advanced and important rock documentaries we have gotten yet … The kind of film that buries itself in your ribcage and keeps glowing for days afterward.” – Film Threat
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