The Cinematic Masterpiece You Won’t Get to See
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Why will nobody see this cinematic masterpiece about Prince?
From New York Times, I'm Michael Barbaro. This is The Daily. For the last few years, one of the country's most celebrated filmmakers has tried to unlock the mysteries of one of the country's most celebrated musicians. According to my colleague, Times Magazine deputy editor Sasha Weiss, the result is a cinematic masterpiece. So how is it possible that nobody will ever see it?
It's Friday, March 7th. Sasha, welcome to The Daily.
Thanks so much for having me, Michael.
Hard to fathom it's your inaugural episode.
I'm delighted to be here.
I want to just acknowledge... a certain awkwardness to the work we're about to undertake, which is we are going to be talking, you and I, about a very important film that none of us will ever see. Yeah. That's weird. Totally. But back when you thought the world very much would see the film... You became deeply invested in the story of it. And you have stayed invested in it for years. Simple question. Why?
Well, let's start with who it's about.
My name is Prince.
The supernova genius Prince.
And I've come to play with you.
You know, it's kind of a funny thing. I didn't come to this as a huge Prince fan. I came to it as a person who's deeply interested in him as a symbol. He was part of the wallpaper of my childhood. He is this kind of... Literally or figuratively? Figuratively. But, you know, you hear him, you see him. He's kind of this, like, in the cultural imagination, he is an avatar of gender-bending dreaminess, boundary-pushingness, breaking categories. Sensuality personified. Sensuality, sexiness, but a kind of uncategorizable sexiness. And I think for a lot of people, you know, he's at the top of the cultural pantheon. He's the icon of American pop music.
I'm so crazy for you
He was a beautiful singer. He could play a million instruments. I mean, his music is just transcendently great. Hits like... Kiss.
I mean, the songs of Purple Rain alone...
He was a world-eating genius. So it's like no subject could be as big, as mysterious, as fascinating as Prince. Say a word about mysterious. Well, I think Prince cultivated a kind of mystery, right? I mean, he seemed kind of saintly. He seemed spiritual. You know, he was someone who changed his name to a symbol without explanation. There was a performance of a kind of... Unknowability. Unknowability. And then that was part of the allure and part of the mystique. Also, he was extremely elusive. So that was my interest in Prince. And the other thing that drew me to the film was the person making it. Ezra Edelman, who I really admired as a filmmaker. I think he's a once-in-a-generation talent. And I was really curious what it would be to see his mind tangling with Prince.
Well, tell me more about Ezra Edelman and why he is such a once-in-a-generation talent.
Hey, Ezra.
Hi, Sasha.
Thanks for being here.
Thanks for having me. I'm, I think, happy to be here.
So I've gotten to know Ezra pretty well over the years of reporting this story, and we've talked a lot. He is extremely dogged and rigorous. He is extremely focused.
Again, you know my issues with this. It's like, I don't want to make this shit about me.
He's just very human, Ezra.
That's what I think. He can be kind of intense. And what's his backstory?
You know, from the time I graduated from school where I, you know, wrote for a school paper, I always was interested in media and sports.
So Ezra started out in TV journalism and sports journalism especially. And eventually he started directing his own documentary films.
I'm self-taught. I just like watch things. And so in some ways I have the brain of someone who's trained on watching narrative films.
And he brings a lot of rigor and I would say also a lot of emotion and storytelling chops to these huge canvases that he takes on.
I do believe there's a way of informing, really informing, talking about things and having people learn, but do it in a way that also entertains them. And I kind of took that as my mandate.
But maybe the best way to talk about his work is to talk about his best-known film on O.J. Simpson, O.J. Made in America, which comes out in 2016 to great acclaim on ESPN. It wins the Academy Award for Best Documentary Film that year.
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