I don't know why so many here are mad that the film talked about Linda. I also don't know anybody needed this film to understand Billie's music. This film is about these amazing interviews that Linda took years to get, and in the process, probably died for them. Without Linda's obsession, there would be no film. I am just so grateful that she did this before all these people who personally knew Billie died. And it sounded like many of these folks were glad to have their voices heard to set the record straight. Linda instinctively understood the cultural importance of these accounts from the very mouths of people who had to endure Jim Crow crap with Billie. I loved the weaving of Billie's radio interview and her London TV appearences throughout. I also loved the amount of time this spent on her childhood, and her relationship with the songs Strange Fruit and Don't Explain.
14 Reviews
A hard life, an amazing legacy
paul2001sw-114 March 2021
Billie Holiday was supremely talented, lived a hard life, and had an unstable personality. She died from abuse of drink and drugs, aged just 44. This documentary is interesting as it contains candid interviews from those who knew her, conducted by a female journalist who was researching her life in the 1970s; her work never reached fruition as she died young herself, in what some of those close to her believe to have been suspicious circumstances. We don't really get any insight into the latter death; we do get a more interesting (though unpolished) insight into the singer's life, unfiltered by the hagiography that can spoil some films made too many years after the fact. The speed of Holiday's decline is tragic; it's clear she had problems of her own, but also that those around her (and the racist world she lived in) certainly made them worse. But the film does do justice to her brilliance; to this day, she pretty much defines what a jazz singer is, and she dared to call out racism too. It's definitely worth watching, even if jazz isn't your usual beat.
Not definitive but damn good
tpaans21 March 2021
Refreshingly direct and to the point, this documentary doesn't mince any words and pulls no punches. It's Billie's story right in your face and told by many who really knew her and who had no interest in propagating fantasy versions of Lady Day. The attention paid to the woman who did all the hard work to get these stories told is in no way disproportionate and we owe her a debt of gratitude. Respect!
Billie
jboothmillard9 December 2021
Warning: Spoilers
I was never familiar with any songs, but I had always heard the name of the famous singer, so this documentary was a chance for me to get to know more about her and her work. Basically, this explores the life and career of jazz singer Billie Holliday, through a series of recorded audio interviews, some archive television footage and live performances, and many photographs. Specifically, the film is based around recorded audio cassettes from the 1970s by Linda Lipnack Kuehl, researching for a book about Holiday that was never completed. Kuehl's interviews were with friends, family members, band members, peers from 1930s Harlem, piano players, psychiatrists, and a pimp. Holiday made the news on numerous occasions for her relationships, but many thought her career would be damaged when she was arrested and imprisoned for possession of drugs. She spent two years incarcerated and could not escape the addictions of alcohol and drugs, but she is always remembered for her mesmerising voice. Holiday may not be well known for chart success, but her vocal talent is certainly memorable, with songs like "Strange Fruit", "God Bless the Child", "Blue Moon", "Lover Man" and "Summertime". Interviewed celebrities and those featured in the audio and television included Tony Bennett, Sylvia Syms, Louis Armstrong, John Hammond (music producer), Tom Jones and Orson Welles. If you are unfamiliar, like me, with Billie Holiday, then this is an interesting insight into a troubled but talented star, a worthwhile documentary. Billie Holiday - Lady Sings the Blues was number 38 on The 100 Greatest Albums. Good!
This is the film to see about Billie Holiday
steiner-sam22 June 2021
It's a documentary on the singer Billie Holiday based on research and oral interviews by Linda Lipnack Kuehl, who died in 1978 under mysterious circumstances, which meant she could not finish the book she was writing about Holiday.
I watched this movie because I was very disappointed when I watched "Lady Sings the Blues" (1972) starring Diana Ross playing Billie Holiday. The story told in that movie seemed to have a passing connection to reality, and much of it was pretty bad despite the praise Ross received for playing the role. Ross did not have the depth to play such a complex person.
This 90-minute documentary makes excellent use of Kuehl's audio interviews of musicians that worked with Holiday, friends from her early life, and people like one of the pimps from her early life as a prostitute. It was chilling to hear him laugh about prostitutes liking to be beaten up. Accompanying the interviews is a lot of Holiday music and film footage that matches well the interviews. The most striking musical piece for me was "Strange Fruit," which explicitly references victims of lynching as the "strange fruit."
In my mind, if you want to learn about the real Billie Holiday, this is the film to see.
I watched this movie because I was very disappointed when I watched "Lady Sings the Blues" (1972) starring Diana Ross playing Billie Holiday. The story told in that movie seemed to have a passing connection to reality, and much of it was pretty bad despite the praise Ross received for playing the role. Ross did not have the depth to play such a complex person.
This 90-minute documentary makes excellent use of Kuehl's audio interviews of musicians that worked with Holiday, friends from her early life, and people like one of the pimps from her early life as a prostitute. It was chilling to hear him laugh about prostitutes liking to be beaten up. Accompanying the interviews is a lot of Holiday music and film footage that matches well the interviews. The most striking musical piece for me was "Strange Fruit," which explicitly references victims of lynching as the "strange fruit."
In my mind, if you want to learn about the real Billie Holiday, this is the film to see.
Great documentary
johnhextall31 March 2021
I really enjoyed this film - lots of clips of Billie singing that I'd not seen before and many sympathetic interviews with other great musicians. Well worth watching whether you're a fan or new to the music of the woman who pretty much defined popular singing.
Many Tragedies in Life
westsideschl8 April 2021
Besides this doc I also just watched the newly released DVD "Sid & Judy" (Garland) both foretelling the enormous pressures of achievement. Money & drugs/alcohol, as usual, play a part. This doc compiles the many years of research from the intelligent, yet sensitive, 125 audio taped interviews of Linda Lipnack Kuehl along with her research into the paper trail documentation of Billie's life. Unfortunately Linda died before she could edit it all into a source story (although many other's have utilized her research) on Billie's life. The saddest part is two years before Billie died (1959 with just $750) she married McKay, and even though she intended to divorce & create a will, it was never completed & her estate went to him & his family.
Note: 1937, Count Basie introduces Billie (age 22) into the band and to the audience with perhaps the first recorded singing rhyming rap lyric. Amazing to hear how current it sounded.
Note: 1937, Count Basie introduces Billie (age 22) into the band and to the audience with perhaps the first recorded singing rhyming rap lyric. Amazing to hear how current it sounded.
Too focused on this woman who meant to write a bio before she died, not enough focus on BILLIE!!
gabriellekatz6 January 2021
I don't know whether it's interesting or not that this intended writer of a bio on Billie - starting out just because she was a fan - like the rest of us - is white, Jewish woman but the amount of time this docu/biopic spends on the writer, who never completed the work before dying, is ridiculous and uninteresting. Way, Way too much screen time devoted to this other woman's life - which, when you've got footage and interviews of and about LADY DAY BILLIE HOLIDAY - it's mind-boggling to devote so much time on this one woman's attempts to write about Billie. Very odd style and underwhelming - which only left me desperately wanting to see and hear more of Billie and much less of this other distracting stuff. Badly done. R.I.P. TO THE LATE, GREAT BILLIE HOLIDAY.
Doc that sets out not to portray Billie Holiday as a victim portrays her as a victim
Jodro225 October 2021
What is there to say beyond the title? I was really disappointed in this doc, for several reasons. Some of them technical: the timeline was jumbled and very few facts are given. If you didn't know the story of Holiday already, you most likely would feel pretty confused. This would have been excusable if the audio interviews that the journalist apparently spent years collecting would have thrown up a lot of new information, but actually, there was nothing new at all, beyond a few small anecdotes. Perhaps the audio tapes contained nothing new or because of the choices of the film maker, but the audio was a mish-mash of unrelated stories, some of them interesting, some of them not so much, but rarely set in a clear timeline, and mostly of a personal nature. There was almost nothing about what made Billie Holiday such a great singer. Because of this focus on the personal, the end result was for the most part a portrayal of a tragic woman who was a victim of circumstances, exactly what Linda Kuehl had set out to avoid. The main thing this doc had going for it was some great footage of Holiday performing; however, and I may be wrong, some of it looked like it had been colored in.
A mistake....
elhonig-902-12989624 January 2021
This could've been a good documentary about Billie Holiday. For me, this doc had poor balancing of the elements in a very complicated life. As others have mentioned, I don't know why the life of the interviewer/biographer was enmeshed in a film about Billie. If they want to tell Linda's story, they should make a separate movie about her.
This movie gave me a chance to see some video clips of Billie singing that I haven't seen before. There were a few insightful remarks about Billie from some musicians who worked with her. Overall, I don't think justice was done in telling the life story of Billie. She was a unique singer who influenced every other singer in her day. I would've liked the focus of this film to have been on that.
I scored it a 6 to encourage further docus about Billie; not bc this one is very good at all.
gabriellekatz6 January 2021
Every bit of video or audio of or about Billie is amazing but this docu is so oddly and awkwardly put together with so much focus on this Jewish New Yorker woman who compiled many interviews and meant to write a bio but died before its completion. The amount of screen time spent either on billie's drug use or on this unknown writer woman made for one heck of a disappointing experience. More Billie!!!
Not the least bit insightful and this writer's family must've insisted much (MUCH) of the film center on her. Which, when we're talking about Lady Day, is a criminal waste of opportunity. I wdve scored it lower except that I want to encourage more works about Billie Holiday - and if this film gets scored very low that might scare future projects away.
Greatest singer of all time deserves a great documentary, this ain't it!
GormanBechard10 December 2020
This documentary on Billie Holiday, whom I consider to be the greatest singer of all time, is so badly constructed, it made me angry. I almost don't know where to begin. From the hideous colorization to the device of using the intended author of her bio to tell the story, to the focus on her addictions and bad choices in men OVER her music, this documentary fails on every account. It literally almost sluts shames her for her choices. And again, NO ONE CARES about the intended biographer. This was supposed to be Billie's story. Beyond all that, there are subtitles when we barely need them, and none when we so do. This is even worse than Lady Sings The Blues. Will someone please do this amazing talent justice! I make music documentaries. And I love the good ones. This might be the worst music doc I have ever seen. ARGH!!!
Poorly made with a clear intention to serve a victim narrative for Billie.
giorgiozacharo1 October 2020
What is the deal with all these biographies trying to portray everyone as a saint? I wish this was a film focusing on her songs and what made her great instead of being a second rate gossip TV show about her personal life. Also what is the reason for putting a second storyline of her fan/biographer? The name of the documentary is Billie for a reason.
Born Eleanora Fagan, Billie Holiday became her stage name.
TxMike16 May 2021
Before seeing this documentary I knew little about Billie Holiday. She had a rough start in Philadelphia and Baltimore, including being sex trafficked by her prostitute mother. But she had a mesmerizing voice, while she could probably sing anything well she preformed more as a vocal stylist. And many of her songs were reflections of herself and her life. The documentary contains many vocal excerpts from interviews, including some by Holiday herself.
In many respects her life was mostly a tragedy, heavy into sex, drugs, and alcohol into her adulthood which ended when she was only 44. But she did have an indelible influence on her type of music.
On DVD from my public library, I watched it at home, my wife skipped.
In many respects her life was mostly a tragedy, heavy into sex, drugs, and alcohol into her adulthood which ended when she was only 44. But she did have an indelible influence on her type of music.
On DVD from my public library, I watched it at home, my wife skipped.
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