Love to Love You, Donna Summer

This purports to be the story of Donna Summer, but it is, sadly, just a mishmash of moments, thrown together.

The voiceovers are done by Donna Summer's husband, her children and a few others. I wish it had been an actual "story," but instead it simply flows aimlessly, with no real structure to it. I kept hoping for the documentary to congeal into an objective narrative, delving into the highs and lows of her life, but it never happened.

For those who are too young to have known Donna Summer, this might be entertaining, but for others, it will be bewildering, as, at almost no point is Donna Summer ever really contributing what was actually happening, and of course, since it was made after her death, that is reasonable. However, any filmmaker knows that a story must be told, and here, it just misses the mark, no matter how well-intentioned it is. I recognize though, that her daughter felt the need to make this. I just wish it shed light on the "real" Donna Summer.

A wandering documentary, not developed enough to be seen as any kind of coherent biography that could give a thoughtful person real insight into the life of Donna Summer.

As "Love to Love You, Donna Summer" (2023 release; 107 min) opens, Donna Summer performs that breakthrough song (some might say, her signature song), as she dances along. We then hear from Donna herself: "I have a secret life: what you see is not who I am". We then go back in time, as young (8 yo) Donna is asked to sing gospel songs at church. At this point we are 10 minutes into the movie.

Couple of comments: this documentary is co-directed by Brooklyn Sudano (Donna's daughter) and Oscar-winning (for "Music by Prudence") Roger Ross Williams. The result is a carefully crafted assessment of Donna Summer the musician and the person. The film makers do not step aside to address avoid some touchy issues. The lovie includes never-before-seen home footage (it helps that Donna, a wanna-be film maker, has a camera with her on those long tours). When asked what she thinks about being called the "Queen of Disco", Donna responds "but that is not all of who I am". This documentary makes that very clear.

"Love to Love You, Donna Summer" premiered at the Berlin Film Festival in early 2023, to immediate positive acclaim. The movie is currently rated 83% Certified Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes. For whatever reason I had missed this documentary, until Max (where this is now streaming) suggested it to me based on my viewing habits. If you are a fan of Donna Summer or of the disco era, I'd readily suggest you check this out, and draw your own conclusion.

I watched this documentary for the purpose of seeing a glimpse of Donna Summer's off-stage private life. I would have been age 9 when Love to Love You, the song, was released worldwide. As a young person growing up in the 70s and 80s I did not follow the lives of entertainers and still do not as a woman in her mid-50s, so learning about Donna's life peaked my interest because I have an appreciation for her as a performance artist.

Giving the fact that I knew nothing about Ms. Summer's personal life, I can say I did learn some things. Unlike some others who have written reviews, I did not mind all the home footage. Her personal life off stage is why I was drawn to watch the documentary.

What I do have an issue with is the absolutely poor audio/sound mixing. There are segments where a caption will appear that states, "Voice of... (a person's name and their relationship to Donna)," but then nothing is heard. Early on in the film when this first happened, I turned the volume up to a really high level and barely heard the person speaking. This happens throughout the film. I subsequently stopped turning up the volume to hear because then the following audio would come in blasting. There are also instances where the narrator/daughter asks someone a question, but then their answer is not heard. Did no one view the film for possible issues before it was released on HBO Max?

I thought this documentary was great! The filmmakers made great usage of all the archived footage and interviews they had at their disposal. Hearing about Donna Summer's life story and home life was very surprising and introduced so many more layers that I never knew about before. In my opinion, if a documentary does it's job right, it will make you want to look up more information about the artist afterwards. My favorite music documentaries (Searching For Sugarman, A Band Called Death, Zappa, Sinatra: All Or Nothing At All) make you want to look up more about the subject after the film is done. This documentary makes me want to do exactly that, and I love it! If you have a chance to watch this film, do so.

Donna Summer had a voice that could make any aspiring singer sit down. Her voice had a resonance that kept you listening. I found this documentary stretched to find a story outside her career that just didn't really do anything to make her legacy shine brighter but rather more of her daughter's search to understand her mother who clearly was exceptionally reserved and not fully connected to her children. Even her love affairs seemed shallow. I found this documentary more discrediting than inspiring. A lot of scenes were flat, lots of unnecessary home video that made me want to turn it off and just stream one of her live performances to remember the bottom line - great voice.