Paul McCartney's 9/11 Documentary to Debut on Showtime

[I am the Paulrus]

Paul McCartney's 9/11 Documentary to Debut on Showtime

'The Love You Make' will follow the singer as he prepares for a benefit concert

By Matthew Perpetua, Rolling Stone

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/paul-mccartneys-9-11-documentary-to-debut-on-showtime-20110720

"The Love We Make", a documentary about Paul McCartney's experiences in New York City immediately after 9/11 is set to premiere on Showtime one day before the 10th anniversary of the historic attack. The black and white film is mainly focused on the Beatles legend's work in planning and preparing for the Concert for New York City benefit show six weeks afterward.

The documentary will feature footage of McCartney rehearsing for the gig along with clips of the singer talking to New Yorkers on the street and cameo appearances from Mick Jagger, David Bowie, Leonardo DiCaprio and Bill Clinton. The film was directed by Albert Maysles, one half of the filmmaking duo that made the Rolling Stones movie Gimme Shelter and the cult classic Grey Gardens.

---The article failed to mention that Albert Maysles, along with his brother David, worked on "What's Happening! The Beatles In The USA". The footage was used for "The Beatles: The First U.S. Visit" which documents the Beatles' US trip as they travel to New York City, Washington, DC, and Miami Beach in February, 1964.

[cd1500rpm]

Let's hope this makes it to iTunes pretty quickly since I don't subscribe to Showtime. Who knows if or when a DVD release would happen. I'll try to remember to check iTunes after it airs.

[I am the Paulrus]

It was very well done! The footage of Paul in the back of the limo harken back to the scenes of him with The Beatles in that limo in "The First U.S. Visit." Recollections of Paul with Dan Rather sitting in the Ed Sullivan Theater watching video footage on a telly on the very stage where they debuted in 1964. In Paul's dressing room, there hung a b/w photo of the Imagine mosaic with flowers on it@ Strawberry Fields in Central Park. It was kewl seeing Ozzy Osborne meeting Paul and thanking him for their contributions to music that helped inspire him. How come Brian Ray and Paul "Wix" Wickens weren't with Paul and the rest of the band for the Concert for NYC? Where were they? There was some guy named Gary who was playing keyboards for Paul. Good to see Zak Starkey playing drums for The Who. I laughed when Paul did this impression of Mick Jagger when he was talking to Eric Clapton. Was that true what Paul said or was he joking when he was saying that the line in "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" started out originally as "A boy with kaliedoscope eyes" but was later changed to "A girl with kaliedoscope eyes"? When Paul was visiting the NYCFD firehouses, what a coincidence that Paul stands in front of a fire engine that is number 9! Though this documentary was released now in conjunction of the 10th anniversary of 9.11, couldn't Paul have released it years ago? And noticed there was no sign, whatsoever, of Heather Mills in the film. Was Yoko at the Concert for NYC?

[chris]

some thoughts...

why wasn't it in HD? but it may have been recorded before HD was the norm

paul seemed real. not too hammy. it was good to see him walking the streets signing autographs. it even showed him cracking because he was surrounded by 25 autograph seekers when he just wanted to get out of traffic. he wisely opted to get back in the limo. although he did claim to be a man of the people. not too sure you are a man of the people if you are claiming that about yourself.

his band was in it's earliest stages. he even claimed that they had only played together one before (during the making of driving rain)...which i think featured another keyboardist besides wix.

it was cool seeing the band (minus paul) practicing backing vocals for i'm down (practicing, because they hadn't spent time together...new band)

i thought it was quite revealing watching dan rather interviewing paul for 60 minutes. rather plays a tape of the beatles playing ed sullivan. rather looks like a little kid...in amazement. while paul looked like he couldn't bare to have to sit thru another viewing of that...again.

paul instructing letterman bassist how to play bass on freedom. its called freedom, but don't get carried away and play too freely.

all in all...a lot more real then what a normal paul movie would feature.

[pates78]

I had the amazing privilege of attending the premeire for this at the Toronto Festival (TIFF) on Friday, which was followed by a Q&A with Albert Maysles himself!

First off, the documentary was fantastic. They made the decision right off the bat to film in 16mm black and white because of its timeless, classic quality, which as the production team/Maysles pointed out afterwards greatly supported the gravitas of the material. It was great seeing Paul so unguarded, especially since we know how closely he tends to his image, monitoring each photo that goes out, etc. This is just raw footage, Paul like everyone else dealing with the immediate aftermath of 9/11 and trying to help, dealing non-stop with the press, interviews, fans, fellow musicians, etc. And one of the great things about this film is how much humour and warmth comes thru, particularly when considering what was going on at the time.

As for why this is only coming out now, like anything dealing with 9/11 they found they needed space and distance from it to properly assemble it. And even then they weren't quite sure how to put it together with one of the producers afterwards commenting that it really turned into a character study of Paul as much as a documentary about this concert/event. Also, as Maysles revealed afterwards, he's got TONS of stuff just sitting in his archives/vaults, including a full doc ready to go on Grand Funk Railroad, but most impressively one on Orson Welles. He spent 10 days with Welles in Spain attending bull fights and filming everything, but he just hasn't been able to go back and properly finish/release everything.

They all commended Paul afterwards for allowing them to make the film as they wanted. There's some stuff in there i'm sure he wouldn't necessarily have loved to see anymore, he spends a lot of time really trying to push "Freedom" as the big closer and even states that he had to "audition" the track for Harvey Weinstein who was helping organize the concert and he wasn't keen on it. And there's some hilarious backstage bits with Paul and Clapton talking about the track too.

It's also good to remember this was a pretty nerve-wracking time for Paul too; he was re-emerging into the public eye with a new album and a new band and was also kind of using this concert to see if he was ready to start touring again. Thankfully as we all know he went on from this concert to launch his first world tour in about a decade and hasn't looked back. Funnily enough it was an audience member that pointed out to Maysles the circular nature of the film - back in '64 the Maysles team captured the Beatles hitting America for the first time, right after the Kennedy assassination, which was a cathartic/healing moment, and here was Paul again, helping to heal and inspire after another tragedy.

It really is an amazing film.