Singer and model Grace Jones documentary to premiere at Toronto film festival
Grace had fiercely controlled her public image, but made the bold decision to unmask ... The film is a deliberately presenttense experience.
SINGER and supermodel Grace Jones will be the subject of a documentary entitled “Grace Jones: Bloodlight and Bami”.
Jones moved with her family from her native Jamaica to upstate New York as an adolescent; by 18, she began modelling on both sides of the Atlantic. She lent her androgynous look to fashion labels like Yves Saint Laurent and Kenzo, and worked with fashion photographers like Helmut Newton and Guy Bourdin, covering magazines like Elle and Vogue.
Jones’ early music has been described as a hybrid of reggae, funk, pop, and rock. Her most popular albums include “Warm Leatherette” (1980), “Nightclubbing” (1981), and “Slave to the Rhythm” (1985).
In the film’s trailer, Jones is seen applying makeup in the back of a car, then before a vanity in a backstage suite, to the beat of her single “Pull Up to The Bumper”. The clip lingers on Jones as she applies blush and powder to her angular face. “I’m going tribal,” she intones while drawing a line of gold paint down the bridge of her nose.
Director Sophie Fiennes spent over five years with her subject. She told The Independent: “Grace had fiercely controlled her public image, but made the bold decision to un-mask... The film is a deliberately present-tense experience.” The film utilizes a decade’s worth of footage.
Jones discusses her life and work with her collaborators in music, art, fashion and film, notably photographer and graphic designer JeanPaul Goude (with whom she had a relationship and a son), and Jamaican music duo Sly and Robbie. The film includes performances of her tunes from “Slave To The Rhythm” to recent track “Williams’ Blood”.
In a review of her 2015 memoir, “I’ll Never Write My Memoirs”, the New York Times said of Jones: “Her career as a performer, a model and a high priestess of the outré has been rooted for decades in catwalk-Kabuki mischief and provocation.” In 2017, she collaborated with British group Gorillaz, appearing on the track “Charger”, part of their fifth studio album.
The Toronto Film Festival will run September 7-17, 2017.
Following her headline appearance at Standon Calling, an annual music festival in late July, Jones also announced a one-night special event for October 25: “Grace Jones and Friends Live.”
The event will include an preview of her documentary at cinemas across the UK two days before its general release on Oct 27, and a Q& A with the singer.