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Who is he? What is he? Where did he come from? These are questions that often cross people’s minds when talking about David Bowie. These are also the questions that the new documentary about the rock legend, Moonage Daydream, will finally answer. His various personas are a spectacle to behold, and his music is an experience that you’ll never have from anything else. After six years since his passing (maybe to another planet), filmmaker Brett Morgen brings you a showcase of the Starman’s musical journey in the all-new documentary where the Starman is sure to blow your minds.
Moonage Daydream is billed as an “immersive, interactive, cinematic odyssey” to the musical legend. The documentary film follows Bowie’s professional and personal life and how he brought it all together to create masterpieces every single time. From behind-the-scenes footage to his creative process, the film includes his music, shows, interviews, and more of the British rock star and music legend. It’ll also explain the arrival of Ziggy Stardust, but more on that later.
Written, directed, and produced by Brett Morgen and co-produced by Andrew Murray, Moonage Daydream will give you the best insight you have ever had into the mind that made David Bowie as we know him. Tony Visconti, Bowie’s long-time producer, serves as the music producer on the film.
From the release date, trailer, and other details, here’s everything we know so far about the new David Bowie documentary.
When Is Moonage Daydream’s Release Date?
Moonage Daydream had its world premiere at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival. The documentary is set to release in theaters across the United States on September 16, 2022. Moonage Daydream is also expected to arrive for streaming on HBO Max (and air on HBO as well) sometime in the spring of 2023. But since there’s no official news on this yet, you can watch this space for the latest updates.
Watch the Moonage Daydream Trailer
The official trailer for Moonage Daydream depicts the enigma that David Bowie had always been. His art style, often considered eccentric and overwhelming, is highlighted in the one and half minute trailer.
If you expect this film to be a biography of a sort, then you may be disappointed as this is not that at all, as the trailer reveals. In fact, the trailer gives you glimpses of what exactly to expect from this film, namely, how Bowie changed the course of music culture around the world, and how he challenged societal and gender norms, way before the world was ready to talk about it. The sound, light, and animation effects, as the trailer proves, look extraordinary and psychedelic enough to put you in a trance and make you feel you are right there.
To summarize, Moonage Daydream seems like an audiovisual extravaganza that will make you plunge into the world of Ziggy Stardust, like never before.
Who Is Making Moonage Daydream?
Moonage Daydream is written, directed, and produced by American filmmaker Brett Morgen. Morgen is an Academy Award-nominated documentary film director, producer, writer, and editor. He is best known for previously making the musical documentaries Say It Loud: A Celebration of Black Music in America, in 2001, and Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck, in 2015, for which he won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Directing for a Documentary/Nonfiction Program. He has also directed Crossfire Hurricane in 2012, a documentary about the Rolling Stones, as well as Jane in 2017, a documentary on philanthropist and primatologist Jane Goodall.
Morgen worked on Moonage Daydream for five years to bring together the rock star’s 54 years of legacy into one holistic, two-hour film.
Toni Visconti serves as a music producer for the film. Visconti is an American record producer, musician, and singer, who had the longest association with Bowie, from the production and arrangement of the 1968 single, "In the Heat of the Morning" to his final album, Blackstar, in 2016. Visconti also occasionally performed on many albums of Bowie.
When is Moonage Daydream set?
The documentary covers Bowie’s live performances and media interactions between 1970 and 1977, his peak
What is the background of Moonage Daydream?
The title of the documentary film is inspired by the eponymous song by David Bowie. Moonage Daydream, the song, was first recorded in 1971 and released as a single with his short-lived band, Arnold Corns. The song was re-recorded with Spiders from Mars (comprising Mick Ronson, Trevor Bolder, and Mick Woodmansey) and released in 1972. Moonage Daydream is the song on the album that introduces one of Bowie’s popular personas – Ziggy Stardust – a bisexual alien rock star who is going to save the Earth from its impending doom. So, in a way, the documentary film Moonage Daydream, befitting the essence of the eponymous song, highlights the Ziggy Stardust era of Bowie.
What Is Moonage Daydream About?
Moonage Daydream is Brett Morgen’s homage to that creative, musical, and spiritual arc of the legend that David Bowie is.
One of the most influential artists of the 20th century, Bowie had a remarkable career spanning nearly six decades of groundbreaking, stimulating, and norm-defying music, art, and videography. Throughout his career, he has been many personalities wrapped into an icon. From Major Tom to Ziggy Stardust, Aladdin Sane, Halloween Jack, The Thin White Duke, and finally, The Blind prophet, he was everything all at once. His nonconformity to conventions and rules is what made him a legend that lives on, years after his death (or transcendence, whichever you want to believe). What he portrayed was way too futuristic for his time. Although the film does not cover every persona or every aspect of the musician, it focuses on his glam rock and Berlin eras, exploring more of the Ziggy Stardust persona and his work during that phase.
This documentary is the first-ever film about David Bowie to be sanctioned by his estate and covers over five million assets in the musician’s archives. The film also features 40 exclusively remastered songs from Bowie’s portfolio, including “Changes”, “Starman”, “The Jean Genie”, “Life on Mars”, “All The Young Dudes”, “Rebel”, “Fame”, and many more.