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“I didn’t know much about song production,” he admits. great night of pop The film will be directed by Bao Nguyen, director of the star-studded 1985 hit film about famine relief in Ethiopia, We Are the World. “You just make assumptions like this about how things are made just because it happens. But when you consider that 46 great artists came together to make it, It would really be impossible for that to happen now.”
It’s debatable whether the superstars of 2024 will be able to come together like the Reagan-era hitmakers did in America and Britain nearly 40 years ago. In fact, Nguyen’s latest documentary premieres today at Sundance, just days after USA for Africa recorded a song written by Lionel Richie and Michael Jackson in a Los Angeles studio. . It is also true that the film completed its 96-minute run after a total of four Sundance screenings. great night of pop The film will be released on Netflix on January 29th.
Following Bob Geldof and Band Aid’s chart-topping single ‘Do They Know It’s Christmas’, ‘We Are the World’ was released on March 7, 1985 and was a huge hit. It became. Night session with Richie etc. thriller Star Jackson, Bruce Springsteen, Diana Ross, Cyndi Lauper, Kenny Rogers, Smokey Robinson, Waylon Jennings (for a while), Journey’s Steve Perry, Huey Lewis, Sheila E., Willie… Nelson, Stevie Wonder, Bob Dylan, Tina Turner, and many more, as well as the legend of legends Ray Charles, scored a No. 1 hit with the song, raking in more than $60 million, and it was a summer hit in Philadelphia. He was the closer at the Live Aid concert.
Bruce Lee documentary for Mr. Nguyen Become water ” is one of Sundance’s defining films of 2020, and it’s an adaptation of that effort, with a night of challenges nearly as long as the superstars who contributed original songs. A deep dive into recordings and period footage, as well as interviews with Ritchie, Lauper, Springsteen, Robinson, and Lewis, reveals a new understanding of what was at stake in 1985 and the magnitude of the effort. It will be revealed in the version.
Back in Park City for the Montana premiere at the Eccles Theater today at 9:15 p.m., Nguyen spoke to me about making the film. great night of popthe harsh purple secrets of recording sessions, and the importance of honesty.
deadline: This movie is an example of how, while we think we know the story of We Are the World, there is a whole other story to be told. As the director of The Greatest Night in Pop, what surprised you about making this film?
Bao Nguyen: I was only about 2 years old when this song was released. So I don’t remember when it was released. My parents were refugees from Vietnam. They didn’t speak any English, but they had Kenny Rogers records. They had a Lionel Richie record. And I remember when I was younger they used to play those records all the time.
“We Are the World” was one of those records, and that was kind of my introduction to it.
I didn’t know much about how to make songs. We make assumptions about how things are made simply because that’s how they happen. But considering 46 great artists came together to make it, it really wouldn’t be possible for that to happen now. Obviously, people are going to do things remotely. Or trying to get everyone in a room for one night. That was an incredible story for me.
deadline: How did it all come together in the 21st century?cent century?
Nguyen: So my producer Julia Nottingham, who also produced Be Water, approached me about producing this song, which again I knew very little about. I may have seen it in the headlines or something during the 20th and 25th anniversaries, but I’ve never actually clicked and looked at the timeline.
So I went all night and found out how crazy it was.
Seeing all the pressures and little moments that they had when they were making this song, I thought this was extraordinary. Among other things, you can access archived footage and watch all previously unreleased footage. That’s why we put so much of that into the film in terms of vulnerability and how nervous a lot of the artists were, really nervous.
deadline: Watching the documentary, I was struck by how much pressure Bob Dylan and so many others felt. It was as if we had left our egos at the door as requested, but anxiety and fear seeped in…
Nguyen: that’s right! You just assume that these icons walk into any room and are the coolest people in the room. But when you walk into a room and find out Ray Charles is walking in the room. Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson, Bruce Springsteen, Bob Dylan, the list goes on, it changes things and humanizes everyone.
As Lionel says in the film, “It was like the first day of kindergarten.” Remnants of that line were repeated by various people about that night. So, as a director, I’m always thinking about how to humanize people who are often thought of as untouchable, like Bruce Lee in the movie. Become water.
deadline: what do you mean?
Nguyen: Over time, he became this cultural symbol, the god of martial arts. But the story for me lies in understanding how to approach the people we most admire, our heroes, our icons.
deadline: It’s obvious that Lionel Richie is on board as an interview subject and as a producer, but was it difficult to establish such rapport and find people under the icon?
Guem: This film came about when we were all stuck in our own worlds due to the pandemic. I felt like we needed something to connect us as a world. When we live in such divisive and polarized times, there is no better story to tell than We Are the World. It was just heartening to see all these amazing talents in the same room again doing something worthwhile. It was heartfelt.
deadline: A little off topic, this movie will be released at Sundance on the 19th.th It will be distributed worldwide on Netflix on the 29th.th. It’s a completely different ride than the Be Water of 4 years ago, how do you feel?
Nguyen: To be honest, it’s a roller coaster. So we just finished the final version of the movie after doing some more work in preparation for Sundance. We’re honored to have it available around the world on Netflix. As I mentioned earlier, my parents still live in Vietnam. I had to set up my mom’s Netflix account so she can watch The Crown with Vietnamese dubbing and subtitles like everyone else in the world. But that’s within the scope of the platform. I mean, its exciting, I mean, I love Sundance, but you know, in other parts of the world, Sundance is just a name. they don’t know what it is. Everyone knows Netflix.
deadline: That being said, Lionel will be attending Sundance with you, will there be any surprises or other special guests?
Nguyen: (Laughs) I can’t promise anything. I’m telling you, you might see me trying to get Lionel Richie to sing karaoke at Sundance. That’s the only secret I have for now.
deadline: In that sense, Lionel Richie is the producer and one of the main subjects of this film, but does that prove complicated for an exploratory filmmaker like you?
Nguyen: Certainly, this level of objectivity and distance from the participants in the film is required. I think that was probably a more traditional way of looking at documentaries. But as we start this film and try to give more agency to the people who are actually living the story, and this is their life, I want people to be a big part of the story again. I think we are leaning towards getting more recognition for what we do.
I must say that Lionel is a very generous and supportive partner and I could not have made this film without him. That being said, he had no involvement in the story.
deadline: The story takes on a manipulative edge when Sheila E. comes to her realization that she was unsuccessfully invited to the session because she wanted Prince to attend.
Nguyen: That’s one of the most heartbreaking moments in the movie for me.
deadline: Really?
Nguyen: Yes, when Sheila heard that, she said she had never talked about it before. When we were editing, Lionel never said he wanted to cut anything or anything. For me, that’s the most important part. Honestly, it’s about whether or not we can make a movie.
Lionel wanted to make a film that was as honest as possible.
I think depending on the people you work with, there can be different types of celebrities and subjects who may want to be more hands-on and cleanse their image and persona. That was not the case with this project with Lionel, he was a complete straight shooter. He just wanted an honest retelling.
These are the pros and cons of having someone participate as a test subject and also be a producer.
As a filmmaker who wants perfection, I’m telling the story I want to tell. At the same time, over the course of more than 10 years of making documentary films, I think he has learned that we filmmakers are not just storytellers, we also value stories. So I try not to think of it in a transactional way. Again, this is Lionel’s real life and his legacy. I was very aware of that.
I’m not a self-centered director who says, “This is my way, this is the highway.” He helped me do that with my story as well. Driving on the highway is not my style, Bao, you have an agent to tell the story the way you want it to be told in the end. Please tell me the truth. That’s what I thought.
deadline: Indeed, Shelia E….
Nguyen: yes. Again, she told us that it was her first time speaking about her own experience and how she felt in front of the camera about that moment. But in the end, she said, she had no regrets about participating that night and what happened with the song. I can’t speak for Lionel, but sometimes when things get intense there are other motivations and things like that. Of course, I wish I had asked Prince about it. Unfortunately that’s not possible.I still think the song itself is still a testament to pop music and all that it is, even without Prince’s guitar solo – that would have been interesting.
deadline: One of the elements of this pure pop genius that came alive for me was when Michael Jackson sings an a cappella version of the song by himself to complete the basic track before everyone else comes on. It was a video. I don’t want to say that some of the contradictions and challenging aspects of being a Michael Jackson fan disappear, but it was a pure artistic moment. Did you think so? Is that part of the reason you used that clip?
Nguyen: You hit the nail on the head. It’s about Michael’s pure artistry in that moment, and when you hear him sing, there’s no denying that his voice is out of this world.
It was right before everyone left the American Music Awards and headed to A&M Studios. He was there with the technician and Quincy. I wanted a moment where we could just sit back and really see the artistry and the generational talent that was going to happen later that night.
deadline: And then there were the unexpected insights from people like Huey Lewis, who was a superstar at the time in the mid-1980s.
Nguyen: Huey Lewis is the kindest man in the world. You know, he flew in from Montana for our interview, and he had all this time between finishing the interview and having to meet his family in Los Angeles. So he wanted to sit in that space at A&M while he waited. He asked if he could just hang out and stay in the studio and watch you do another interview. We said, of course, that it was very sweet and all the memories were flooding back to him.
deadline: That sounds like pure documentary gold, as does a lot of the backstory in this movie…
Nguyen: yes. And, you know, at one point I wondered if I was the right person to make this film and tell this story.
deadline: I understand that, everyone would.
Nguyen: So during the pandemic, I was in Vietnam visiting my parents. I got into a taxi with a 70-year-old Vietnamese taxi driver, and he put a mix CD in for me, and the first song he played was We Are the World. It was at this moment that I realized that this song had such a global resonance and that so many people had a personal connection to it. That’s when I decided to make this film. It was an emotional moment for me when I realized that this song truly touched people all over the world when it first came out, and still does.
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