While he’s not here to see how much his colleagues, friends and fans appreciated his music, Elliott Smith‘s punk spirit likely would’ve approved of the Kickstarter funded documentary “Heaven Adores You.” Nickolas Rossi is the man behind the camera of this one, and after premiering at the San Francisco International Film Festival last month, the first four minutes have been put online.
And the doc kicks off at what, at least on the surface level, was the peak of Smith’s career. When “Miss Misery” was nominated for an Oscar for Best Original Song after landing in Gus Van Sant‘s “Good Will Hunting,” Smith went from being a scrappy singer/songwriter beloved in indie circles, to a mini-phenomenon, leaving the rest of the media to catch up. And this unsettled the already fragile Smith, and as the opening of the documentary lays out, he had difficulty adjusting to this new level of fame, that appeared overnight even though he had been playing music for years.
“Heaven Adores You” screens next at the AFI Docs festival. Watch below. [Pitchfork]