John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s legacy during their 18 months stateside in Greenwich Village is captured in new documentary, “One to One: John and Yoko.”
The feature, helmed by Kevin Macdonald, is set in in 1971 and 1972 New York as Lennon prepares for his One to One charity concert for children with special needs. The iconic performance, which took place on August 30, 1972, was Lennon’s only full length concert between the final Beatles show in 1966 and his death in 1980. “One to One” boasts unseen home videos filmed by Lennon and Ono, as well as archival personal phone calls and photos.
The iconic couple’s son Sean Ono Lennon is also involved as the music producer.
The official logline reads: “Set in New York in 1972, the film explores John and Yoko’s musical, personal, artistic, social, and political world set against the backdrop of a turbulent era in American history. While much of the film surrounds the One to One concert, it deeply explores the state of pop culture during that time as a whole.”
Director McDonald was previously announced to be helming an Elvis Presley biopic and later a Whitney Houston documentary. Now, McDonald is finally getting his musical moment with the late Beatle.
Along with McDonald, Sam Rice-Edwards co-directs and edits. McDonald produced the documentary with Alice Webb and Peter Worsley.
Executive producers include Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, Marc Robinson, David Joseph, and Steve Condie.
The film will premiere at Venice and later screen at the Telluride Film Festival.
Director McDonald said in a press statement that the documentary wanted to emphasize Lennon and Ono as themselves, as opposed to taking a more biographic approach with interviews.
“This period around the concert is the period when John and Yoko are most on camera: They either had their own cameras or they had other people filming,” McDonald said. “I thought, ‘There’s enough here that we could just let them speak for themselves, allow the audience to eavesdrop on them and allow that to be part of the fun of the film. I think that’s much more interesting than a traditional biopic, where the filmmakers are trying to present a very coherent version of things.”
“One to One: John and Yoko” premieres . Check out the teaser below.
