The new documentary lets fans into the lives of John Lennon and Yoko Ono with a new collection of recorded phone calls from John.
Magnolia Pictures has released the trailer for One to One: John & Yoko, which takes an intimate look at John Lennon and Yoko Ono as they settle into a new life in New York City while associating with the anti-war movement and being targeted by the U.S. government. The documentary is directed by Kevin Macdonald and produced by Peter Worsley. Sam Rice-Edwards would co-direct and edit the feature. Macdonald produces the film with Alice Webb and the executive producers on board include Sean Ono Lennon, Marc Robinson, David Joseph, Steve Condie, Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner and Jeremy Kleiner.
The official synopsis reads,
“An expansive and revelatory inside look at John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s life in Greenwich Village in the early 1970s, ONE TO ONE: JOHN & YOKO delivers an immersive cinematic experience that brings to life electrifying, never-before-seen material and newly restored footage of John and Yoko’s only full-length concert. Featuring mind-blowing music newly remixed and produced by Sean Ono Lennon, the film is a seismic revelation that will challenge pre-existing notions of the iconic couple.
On August 30, 1972, in New York City, John Lennon played his only full-length show after leaving The Beatles, the One to One benefit concert at Madison Square Garden, a rollicking, dazzling performance from him and Yoko Ono. Oscar®-winning filmmaker Kevin Macdonald’s riveting documentary takes that legendary musical event and uses it as the starting point to explore eighteen defining months in the lives of John and Yoko. By 1971 the couple was newly arrived in the United States— living in a tiny apartment in Greenwich Village and watching a huge amount of American television. The film uses a riotous mélange of American TV to conjure the era through what the two would have been seeing on the screen: the Vietnam War, The Price is Right, Nixon, Coca-Cola ads, Cronkite, The Waltons. As they experience a year of love and transformation in the US, John and Yoko begin to change their approach to protest — ultimately leading to the One to One concert, which was inspired by a Geraldo Rivera exposé they watched on TV. Filmed in a meticulously faithful reproduction of the NYC apartment the duo shared, ONE TO ONE: JOHN & YOKO offers a bold new take on a seminal time in the lives of two of history’s most influential artists.”
Our Chris Bumbray enjoyed the film at Sundance, and said in his review, “To be sure, McDonald (who also directed superb documentaries about Whitney Houston and Bob Marley) and Rice-Edwards’s doc is not for the uninitiated. If you only know the basics of Lennon’s life and career, further research is warranted before digging into this. But, for his fans (and lord knows I’m one), this is another essential documentary about one of the defining talents of the twentieth century.”
