Kino Lorber has snagged North American rights to “Grace Jones: Bloodlight and Bami,” a press release has announced. If you’re already familiar with the singer-songwriter’s art and persona, you can still expect to learn a lot from the doc. Director Sophie Fiennes told us Jones “exists almost as a cultural construction — a visual fetish,” and she saw this project as a “unique opportunity to explore the person beyond that fascinating surface.”
“Bloodlight and Bami” made its world premiere at the 2017 Toronto International Film Festival, where Kino Lorber CEO Richard Lorber watched from the front row. “[Jones] was literally way larger than life. But the film and the woman are no less so in the back row … It’s a jaw-dropping experience that ricochets artfully between the intimate and galactic, the personal and the public worlds of an iconic superstar,” he said in a statement. “I can’t wait to bring this unique cinematic encounter to North American audiences — one sure to engender many, many new Grace Jones fans.”
According to the film’s synopsis, “Bloodlight and Bami” “re-invents the music documentary as an electrifying journey through the performance, private, and public worlds of pop cultural icon [Jones],” whose “bold aesthetic echoes throughout the film.” Musical sequences are contrasted with intimate personal footage, “ultimately reaching beyond the iconic mask.” Jones’ best known albums include “Nightclubbing” and “Slave to the Rhythm.”
When we asked Fiennes what she’d like people to think about after seeing “Bloodlight and Bami,” she said, “I don’t approach making a film this way as it’s out of my control.” She explained, “The cinema screen is a surface that acts like a mirror and reflects the internal world of each viewer as much as the subject of the film itself.” “Over Your Cities Grass Will Grow,” “The Pervert’s Guide to Ideology,” and “The Pervert’s Guide to Cinema” are among her previous credits.
“Grace Jones: Bloodlight and Bami” will hit theaters in early April with a VOD and home media release to follow in fall.
