While he's still hoping to get his "Brooklyn Loves MJ" project off the ground, as he told us last week, Spike Lee's been able to scratch his Michael Jackson itch; hot on the heels of the release of "Red Hook Summer," he'll unveil "Bad 25," a new documentary about the creation of the pop star's seminal record, at the Venice Film Festival (where he'll also get a lifetime achievement award) in a few short weeks. And it was announced this week that Lee will also be bringing the film to the Toronto International Film Festival.
Given the high quality of Lee's documentary work so far (you can read our take on these projects in our retrospective of the director's work from last week), we're expecting this to be a cut above the usual music documentary, and some first-look images from the film, which reveal participants like Martin Scorsese and Thelma Schoonmaker, Kanye West, Sheryl Crow, ?uestlove and Mariah Carey, suggests that this should shed some interesting light on the 25th anniversary of "Bad." We'll be bringing you our verdict on the film in a few weeks, but in the meantime, check out the images and an official synopsis below.
Spike Lee pays tribute to Michael Jackson's Bad on the twenty-fifth anniversary of the epochal album, offering behind-the-scenes footage of Jackson recording the album and interviews with confidants, musicians, choreographers, and such music-world superstars as Kanye West, Sheryl Crow, Cee Lo Green and Mariah Carey
Bad 25 features captivating behind-the-scenes footage of the recording sessions for several of Bad’s biggest songs ("The Way You Make Me Feel" being among the most memorable). There are also revealing interviews with a number of fellow artists who worked with Jackson — such as Sheryl Crow, with whom Jackson shared the duet "I Just Can’t Stop Loving You" on stage during the Bad world tour — and those who were inspired by him, including Kanye West, Cee Lo Green and Mariah Carey. Lee offers us a more intimate side of Jackson, one rarely glimpsed amidst the glitter and circus-like atmosphere that surrounded the notoriously private superstar, especially as his personal life (and appearance) became a scandal-rag mainstay in the years that followed Bad. As the landmark album takes shape before our eyes, we see Jackson’s dedication to his craft, his talent for inspired collaboration, and his sly sense of humour — as well as some hints of the toll that his relentless work ethic had on his psyche..
