Billie

It's a documentary on the singer Billie Holiday based on research and oral interviews by Linda Lipnack Kuehl, who died in 1978 under mysterious circumstances, which meant she could not finish the book she was writing about Holiday.

I watched this movie because I was very disappointed when I watched "Lady Sings the Blues" (1972) starring Diana Ross playing Billie Holiday. The story told in that movie seemed to have a passing connection to reality, and much of it was pretty bad despite the praise Ross received for playing the role. Ross did not have the depth to play such a complex person.

This 90-minute documentary makes excellent use of Kuehl's audio interviews of musicians that worked with Holiday, friends from her early life, and people like one of the pimps from her early life as a prostitute. It was chilling to hear him laugh about prostitutes liking to be beaten up. Accompanying the interviews is a lot of Holiday music and film footage that matches well the interviews. The most striking musical piece for me was "Strange Fruit," which explicitly references victims of lynching as the "strange fruit."

In my mind, if you want to learn about the real Billie Holiday, this is the film to see.

This could've been a good documentary about Billie Holiday. For me, this doc had poor balancing of the elements in a very complicated life. As others have mentioned, I don't know why the life of the interviewer/biographer was enmeshed in a film about Billie. If they want to tell Linda's story, they should make a separate movie about her. This movie gave me a chance to see some video clips of Billie singing that I haven't seen before. There were a few insightful remarks about Billie from some musicians who worked with her. Overall, I don't think justice was done in telling the life story of Billie. She was a unique singer who influenced every other singer in her day. I would've liked the focus of this film to have been on that.

Every bit of video or audio of or about Billie is amazing but this docu is so oddly and awkwardly put together with so much focus on this Jewish New Yorker woman who compiled many interviews and meant to write a bio but died before its completion. The amount of screen time spent either on billie's drug use or on this unknown writer woman made for one heck of a disappointing experience. More Billie!!! Not the least bit insightful and this writer's family must've insisted much (MUCH) of the film center on her. Which, when we're talking about Lady Day, is a criminal waste of opportunity. I wdve scored it lower except that I want to encourage more works about Billie Holiday - and if this film gets scored very low that might scare future projects away.

Refreshingly direct and to the point, this documentary doesn't mince any words and pulls no punches. It's Billie's story right in your face and told by many who really knew her and who had no interest in propagating fantasy versions of Lady Day. The attention paid to the woman who did all the hard work to get these stories told is in no way disproportionate and we owe her a debt of gratitude. Respect!

I really enjoyed this film - lots of clips of Billie singing that I'd not seen before and many sympathetic interviews with other great musicians. Well worth watching whether you're a fan or new to the music of the woman who pretty much defined popular singing.