Yahoo News Alex Gibney Directing Paul Simon Documentary ‘In Restless Dreams: The Music Of Paul Simon’
Following a three year shoot, award-winning documentary filmmaker Alex Gibney has just completed production on In Restless Dreams: The Music Of Paul Simon, the documentary about Paul Simon’s legendary Grammy Award-winning career. The film also follows Simon’s journey creating his new album Seven Psalms, which poses questions about faith and mortality, during the pandemic and while dealing with his hearing loss. The film is expected to be part of the fall film festival circuit.
In the film, Gibney and Simon journey through a dreamlike world of storytelling, an absorbing portrait of an artist, that transcends both time and space moving freely between present and past, showcasing both his music making in the here-and-now and a unique peek into his career, from Tom & Jerry to Simon & Garfunkel to the triumphs of Graceland and Rhythm of the Saints. Rarely seen or heard footage of Paul on his own in England in 1964, outtakes from Songs of America, a 16mm documentary from 1969 and early rehearsal videos from Paul’s first days jamming with Graceland musicians in Johannesburg are featured in the film. Wynton Marsalis, Lorne Michaels and Paul’s wife, Edie Brickell offer important insights about the man and his music.
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“In early 2021 amid the pandemic, Paul invited me to film him while he was making his most recent album, ‘Seven Psalms.’ Paul was losing his hearing in one ear, and it was a devastating time. His tribulations in making that album about faith and mortality are the emotional heart of this story,” noted Gibney. “Creating a visual dreamscape to meet Paul’s life as an artist has been painstaking, and one of my greatest joys.”
Jigsaw Productions produced the doc alongside Closer Media and Anonymous Content. Closer Media and Anonymous Content also co-financed the project. Produced and directed by Gibney, the film’s producers include Erin Edeiken, David Rahtz and Svetlana Zill, with Jeff Kramer, Stacey Offman, Richard Perello, and Kristen Vaurio executive producing. Zhang Xin, William Horberg, Joey Marra, and Bob Xu are the executive producers on behalf of Closer Media. Nick Shumaker, Jessica Grimshaw, and David Levine serve as executive producers on behalf of Anonymous Content.
“Paul Simon’s songs, solo and with Simon and Garfunkel, were my favorites as a student in the U.K. in the ‘80s as a girl fresh from China having grown up during the Cultural Revolution when there was no exposure to the outside world,” said Zhang Xin, Executive Producer and Founder of Closer Media.
The doc marks the third and latest collaboration between Alex Gibney’s Jigsaw Productions, Closer Media and Anonymous Content in under a year. They have also partnered to produce Musk, a documentary providing an “unvarnished examination” of businessman Elon Musk, and Orwell, a feature documentary on the 1984 author George Orwell directed by Raoul Peck.
“Paul Simon wrote the songbook for so many of our lives. Alex Gibney is one of our great visual storytellers. Zhang Xin and I are thrilled to have the opportunity to work with artists like Alex and Paul, and to support this film-for-the-ages as one of our very first projects at Closer Media,” said William Horberg, Executive Producer for Closer Media.
Known for his cinematic, gripping, and deeply insightful documentaries, some of Gibney’s most successful investigative films include Academy Award-winning Taxi to the Dark Side, the Oscar-nominated Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room; triple Emmy and Peabody-winning Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief, Steve Jobs: The Man in the Machine and The Inventor: Out for Blood In Silicon Valley, about the Theranos scandal, which won the WGA Award for Best Documentary Screenplay.
Altitude, UTA, and AC Independent are selling the rights globally. UTA also represents Gibney and Jigsaw Productions.
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