Documentary on the famed jazz singer Billie Holiday.Documentary on the famed jazz singer Billie Holiday.Documentary on the famed jazz singer Billie Holiday.
- Awards
- 2 nominations
Linda Lipnack Kuehl
- Self
- (archive footage)
- (voice)
Billie Holiday
- Self
- (archive footage)
Sylvia Syms
- Self - Singer & Friend
- (archive footage)
- (voice)
Tony Bennett
- Self - Singer & Friend
- (archive footage)
- (voice)
John Fagan
- Self - Cousin
- (archive footage)
- (voice)
Mary Kane
- Self - Childhood Friend
- (archive footage)
- (voice)
- (as Mary 'Pony' Kane)
Skinny Davenport
- Self - Pimp
- (archive footage)
- (voice)
Detroit Red
- Self - Dancer
- (archive footage)
- (voice)
Dewey 'Pigmeat' Markham
- Self - Entertainer
- (archive footage)
- (as Pgimeat Markham)
Bessie Smith
- Self
- (archive footage)
Louis Armstrong
- Self
- (archive footage)
John Hammond
- Self - Music Producer
- (archive footage)
- (voice)
Ruby Davies
- Self - Roommate
- (archive footage)
- (voice)
Sandy Williams
- Self - Clarence's Bandmate
- (archive footage)
- (voice)
Irene Kitchings
- Self - Friend
- (archive footage)
- (voice)
Count Basie
- Self
- (archive footage)
- (voice)
Lester Young
- Self - Saxophonist
- (archive footage)
- (voice)
- Director
- Writer
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaThis documentary is based on the same research by Linda Lipnack Kuehl that the earlier documentary, Lady Day: The Many Faces of Billie Holiday (1990) is based on. Kuehl died before completing her book about Billie Holiday. Her death was ruled a suicide, although family members believe she may have been murdered.
- ConnectionsFeatures New Orleans (1947)
Featured review
A hard life, an amazing legacy
Billie Holiday was supremely talented, lived a hard life, and had an unstable personality. She died from abuse of drink and drugs, aged just 44. This documentary is interesting as it contains candid interviews from those who knew her, conducted by a female journalist who was researching her life in the 1970s; her work never reached fruition as she died young herself, in what some of those close to her believe to have been suspicious circumstances. We don't really get any insight into the latter death; we do get a more interesting (though unpolished) insight into the singer's life, unfiltered by the hagiography that can spoil some films made too many years after the fact. The speed of Holiday's decline is tragic; it's clear she had problems of her own, but also that those around her (and the racist world she lived in) certainly made them worse. But the film does do justice to her brilliance; to this day, she pretty much defines what a jazz singer is, and she dared to call out racism too. It's definitely worth watching, even if jazz isn't your usual beat.
helpful•130
- paul2001sw-1
- Mar 14, 2021
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Details
Box office
- Gross worldwide
- $202,931
- Runtime1 hour 38 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
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