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00:00Oh, how we miss Luther, right? Well, I don't know how many of you know, but this is our 30th
00:10anniversary here at Essence Festival of Culture, and Luther performed at the very first Essence
00:16Music Festival. Yeah, so it was really important for us to have this film here, and by the way,
00:24we have a Luther exhibit of all of his costumes, some of the costumes he wore in the movie,
00:28down in room 235, so be sure to stop by. But right now, I'm going to bring to the stage
00:34the director of this amazing documentary, Ms. Dawn Porter.
00:46Thank you, Dawn, for joining us. Dawn came all the way from New York?
00:53All the way from Martha's Vineyard. Yes, you came all the way from Martha's Vineyard to be with us.
00:58The mic is, her mic is not working. Can we?
01:04Here we go.
01:07There we go. Okay. Hello. Oh, we can see you. Hi.
01:11One more round of applause. I mean, it's not easy to do this type of documentary.
01:14Thank you, Mary. So, Dawn, I mean, we all love Luther, right? But how much do you love Luther?
01:23You know, first of all, thank you all for showing up and showing out. And I always sit in watching this film.
01:30It's the only film I've ever made that I always sit in. Because I feel like I miss him.
01:35You see, he's funny. He's talented. He's loving. So, yeah, I would say it's like a little piece of heart up there.
01:45Yeah. So, what was the process like? Did you have to talk with the family? How did you get the film done?
01:52Luther's family had been approached many times about doing a film. And I was approached by Sony Publishing.
02:00You see Sony music. I'd made a film about John Lewis. I'd made films about President Obama's White House photographer.
02:09And I'd never done a music documentary. And they asked if I would meet with the family.
02:15And I think they were just ready to do it. They realized, you know, this man's gifts need to be re-shared with the world.
02:24There's a whole other generation that may know some songs, but doesn't know all this history.
02:30I mean, I didn't know all this history. We found all this footage that I had never seen before.
02:35So, I did talk with the family. But they just trusted that, you know, the love would prevail.
02:42And Luther's story is love. So, I'm really, I'm so happy with how it came out.
02:48I am, too. I think we all are. We all loved it.
02:50The music. What went into your music selection choices?
02:53Well, the good thing about being the director is I get to pick.
02:57So, you know, these are some of my favorite songs.
03:01The music selection was the hardest thing because he has so much.
03:05And working with Sony Music, we could, you know, we could have a lot of his songs.
03:11And what I wanted to do is when I'm watching a film, particularly about an artist like this,
03:18I want to hear those songs that I love.
03:20And so, working with Sony Music, we were able, and with the publishing licensing process that we did,
03:28we were able to have so many of the songs play out.
03:30So, you could hear them and remember them and share them.
03:34And so, that was really important to me.
03:36Yeah.
03:36That was really important to us, too.
03:38I think we all enjoyed hearing his music again in a whole movie and such.
03:42In terms of the people who spoke in the documentary, how did you choose who would speak about him,
03:48who wouldn't speak about him?
03:49I really wanted to have people who knew him well, especially with somebody who's passed on.
03:56You want to make sure that what, you know, that their true story is being told as best as you can.
04:03But the other thing that we had, which was such a gift, was we had all of these interviews that Luther had done.
04:10And so, as I'm making the film, I'm thinking, he can tell you his story.
04:14He can tell you what he wants to say about some things.
04:17And so, I can honor that.
04:20So, we have his very close friends, you know, Carlos, Robin, and Fonzie, of course.
04:26But then we had, you know, so we really don't have any talking heads, except for Danielle.
04:32But Danielle was the editor of Vibe magazine.
04:34So, I'm like, she's royalty.
04:36She's music royalty, so she can speak.
04:38But pretty much it was people who just knew him really well.
04:41And, you know, could give you a sense of what he was like as a person.
04:46Yeah.
04:46And then the, I know we have the exhibit, and they chose all these amazing outfits.
04:51As you were watching the footage, were you blown away by just the amount of beating on all the outfits from him to the Lisa Fisher and all?
05:00Yeah, the part that you see in the movie, that montage with the costumes, and then you see the close-ups, those are the actual other costumes.
05:09They are in storage in New Jersey, and the family let us go film those.
05:14So, he designed a lot of those costumes.
05:17We have sketches that he made, like of those green dresses.
05:20That was his vision, and so they still have those costumes.
05:24So, I'm so thrilled that you have, you know, the ones that you have here.
05:28Those are all actually Luther's, you know, Luther's costumes.
05:32And then you did the movie with Sony Music, correct?
05:35Yes.
05:35Now, what is that like?
05:36Because how often do people do a movie with a music company?
05:41Sony Music has been recently, in recent years, looking.
05:46They have so many artists, and they have so much footage and background material.
05:51And so, they've been kind of slowly exploiting their catalog and coming out to different directors and approaching them to see if they would do some of the films.
06:00So, you know, we're all the beneficiaries of that.
06:03So, they approached you?
06:04Yes.
06:05Oh, that's very nice.
06:06And now, where will the movie be able to be seen?
06:09Do we have an announcement?
06:12So, the movie will be in theaters in October and November.
06:16And I hope everyone here will, you know, take your people, please.
06:20Because we all know how hard it is to promote our music, our work, our films.
06:28And so, we are, we know that the audiences are there.
06:32We know that there is an audience for this movie, but also for this music and for this man.
06:38So, I'm very happy that there's going to be a theatrical.
06:41And then it will be out on CNN Films.
06:44CNN Films is coming back.
06:46And they have acquired the movie.
06:47So, it will also be on television.
06:49But go to the theater first.
06:51Yes, please go to the theater.
06:54I'm going to take a few audience questions, if there are any.
06:59Yes.
07:03The question is, is it selected theaters?
07:05There will be an announcement in the fall about where the movie will roll out.
07:10But I'm sure it will be in major cities.
07:12Philadelphia, New York, Atlanta, Detroit, that kind of thing.
07:16Yes.
07:19I just, I would like to say thank you.
07:24Because in the transition, it was a lot of-
07:26Give a mic.
07:27Sorry.
07:29There was so much undisclosed information, confusion, and a great sense of mourning.
07:36So, I found myself, as I was looking at this beautiful piece of work, like, greatly impacted.
07:42Because it was like, okay, now we can begin to have closure.
07:47Versus this, it happened and it's over.
07:51And it's really not over.
07:52Because his legacy lives on.
07:54And thank you for this film.
07:56You're welcome.
07:57I don't know if everyone heard.
07:58But she was saying that now we've had some closure because of this movie.
08:02Because there was so much, you know, questions around his death.
08:05And now we have the closure we need for this very well-loved artist.
08:10Are those, are you holding a hand up for questions?
08:12Okay.
08:12Yes.
08:12Go ahead.
08:13The question is, will it be shown internationally?
08:21And we are in conversations about an international experience also.
08:27You saw some of his greatest performances.
08:29The Mariah, that's Wembley Stadium, sold out.
08:33Luther was also really huge in South Africa and also Korea.
08:39So, here we go.
08:40And also, in addition to his costumes,
08:43we are showing some of the concert footage
08:46from that Wembley Stadium performance over there in the UK.
08:49So, please stop by 235 when you get a chance.
08:53Take pictures, take video, post, and tag.
08:57Hi.
08:58Did he have any siblings that show his father carrying on to him?
09:04Where's his mother?
09:05Luther did have siblings.
09:07They all pre-deceased his mother.
09:09All of her children passed before she did,
09:12and all of complications of diabetes.
09:15No, she's not still living either.
09:17So, you know, and there wasn't,
09:20there weren't a lot of pictures of the children.
09:23You know, that's why we show that one picture of the father multiple times.
09:27You like to show as much as you can, but we didn't have that.
09:30So, this was really important, too, for the family to say, you know, they called him Uncle Ronnie.
09:38So, this, you know, so, but all, they've, they've, you know, the family is passing on.
09:46I have a question in the back.
09:48Hi.
09:49Yes, Dawn.
09:49I just wanted to say thank you for making this film.
09:52I'm a big Luther fan myself, being as young as I am.
09:55But I just wanted to ask you personally, what are your favorite songs by Luther Vandross?
10:01Oh, good question.
10:02It's hard to pick a favorite.
10:04Like, I sing along to all of them.
10:06I really love Any Love.
10:08And then, I loved all his duets.
10:12I actually, like, really, really love his version of the Carpenter song, Superstar.
10:20And that's why we really let that one all play out.
10:23So, you can kind of tell my, you know, some of my favorites from which ones got the most treatment.
10:29But we also, for that song, we had his rehearsal footage.
10:33And then we had his performance.
10:35And then Marcus Miller telling that wonderful story about how he was thinking about the audience all the time.
10:44About how you were going to experience his music.
10:47And then I will tell you that the composer for this film is Robert Glasper.
10:52Yes.
10:54And it was my producer, Leah, who, Leah Smith, who's a wonderful filmmaker.
10:59And she was like, we should get Robert Glasper to do the music for this.
11:04And I was like, yeah, or Prince.
11:06You know, like, Robert Glasper's not showing up.
11:08And Leah just was insistent.
11:11And she reached out to him.
11:12And he said, yeah, I'll do it.
11:13And he just, it was, you know, no drama, Obama.
11:16And what Robert did was he had us come to his studio.
11:22And we watched the film together.
11:24And then he would say to me, what kind of mood are you here?
11:28And I would say, well, here he's a little nervous.
11:30He's anxious.
11:31And then he would play something.
11:34And then he would be like, like this.
11:35And I'd be like, hmm, a little more tense.
11:37And then he would play it again.
11:38And I'd be like, yeah, like that.
11:40And then he had his musicians, live musicians, go in, record a track.
11:45And we kept doing that for scenes.
11:47So all the music that's not Luther's or some famous artist
11:50is from the amazing composer, Robert Glasper.
11:53And I will tell you that So Amazing is his favorite song
11:56because we had done the whole movie.
11:58And like I said, it was so hard to choose between songs.
12:01We could have done another hour.
12:03And he saw the final cut movie.
12:05And he was like, we're so amazing.
12:06We were like, all right, so then we did that thing at the end.
12:10But I love that you, at your tender age, are a Luther fan, too.
12:15So he would really, really love that.
12:19Yes, I have a question.
12:20One of my favorites is with Gregory Hines.
12:23He loves singing with Gregory Hines.
12:26The question is about him loving singing with Gregory Hines.
12:30Absolutely.
12:31Luther really loved, and you see from the Mariah section in the movie,
12:36how generous he was with other artists.
12:39He both respected their music,
12:42even when he was bringing something else to it.
12:45And I really, really love, like, how he was with Mariah.
12:48You know, people forget Mariah was the youngster there.
12:51She was getting famous, but she was, like she said,
12:54she had never performed in a big arena.
12:57And he was the one who encouraged her.
12:59And then, you know, they do that beautiful, beautiful duet.
13:02So, yes, he loved performing with, you know,
13:06our elder Gregory Hines and so many other people.
13:10Yes.
13:12Thank you so much for this.
13:14Can you share with us something that may have gotten edited out
13:18that you really wish could have made it?
13:21The question is what got edited out that could have made it?
13:26I don't think there's really anything.
13:28I think it's more choosing.
13:30I had a very clear idea of what I wanted to do here.
13:35There were, there was probably some more rehearsal footage.
13:38I happen to love archival footage.
13:41And there's probably some of that more that I would have had in it
13:45if we had time and probably some more songs.
13:50So, but, but pretty much it's, you know,
13:53the movie has to keep pace.
13:55A music film is really important that the timing is important.
13:59And the rhythm, there's a rhythm to this movie
14:01that if it had gone on too long, you lose your audience.
14:06So, the idea was to try and be disciplined and, you know,
14:10distill so you can, you have to balance.
14:13How do you enjoy, but also serve the movie?
14:18So, that was the hardest part,
14:20is getting the editing pacing right,
14:22getting that syncopation right.
14:25You have the mic, so you're going to have the last question.
14:29Oh, they took the mic from me.
14:32I just wanted to know when you were addressing
14:35those sensitive topics or the rumors that have swirled about them,
14:39like how you went about addressing them,
14:43but also obviously still being respectful
14:46to a person that you have immense love for.
14:51I love that question.
14:52So, dealing with the, his sexuality
14:55was probably the hardest thing in this movie
14:58because he's not here.
15:00I don't know how he would feel today.
15:02So, I've watched about a million interviews
15:06where he was asked the question
15:07or danced around the question
15:09or da-da-da-da-da-da.
15:11And so, I had a, and then talked to his close friends.
15:14And you see Fonzie say, when we interviewed Fonzie,
15:18I could tell he was nervous
15:19because he knew the question was coming.
15:22And so, he literally, that's what he says.
15:24He says, I don't know what I want to say about that.
15:26And then he said, maybe I'll do more.
15:28And as time went on, I thought, you know,
15:31and we cut this scene a million ways till Sunday.
15:34We did it multiple ways.
15:37But when we found him saying that piece that he says,
15:41which is mind your business,
15:43it kind of felt like that's what he wants us to say.
15:47And, you know, part of being respectful
15:49of people's choice, of people's sexuality,
15:52of their individuality, is respecting their choice.
15:55If their choice is to remain private, I respect you.
15:58If your choice is to be loud and proud, I respect you.
16:02And so, that's kind of where we ended up.
16:05But it was difficult because you want to be true to your,
16:10I want to my audience, you're my audience,
16:12but I also want to be true to him.
16:14So, you're always balancing that.
16:15So, this felt like, it felt like the right thing to do.
16:18It felt like the way to respect him.
16:21Well, thank you all for coming, Dawn.
16:23Thank you so much.
16:24Thank you for this film.
16:25Thank you for coming to New Orleans.
16:28And everyone, have a good time.
16:29And please be sure to see the exhibit.
16:31It's in 235.
16:32And look out for that premiere date in theaters
16:35in October or November.
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