"One to One', a documentary on John and Yoko in Venice, full of previously unseen material
Out of competition on the Lido, the new feature film by Kevin Macdonald, a director who is an expert in storytelling using archive footage
3' min read
3' min read
After Bob Marley and Whitney Houston, it was the turn of John Lennon and Yoko Ono: out of competition at the Venice Film Festival was 'One to One: John & Yoko', a documentary by Kevin Macdonald, an experienced filmmaker in the genre who had previously made products about 20th century musical icons.
If in 'Marley' (2012) and 'Whitney Houston - Star Without Sky' (2018), Macdonald had focused on a single figure, in this case he opts to narrate a couple at a very specific time in their lives and careers.
Co-directed with editor Sam Rice-Edwards, 'One to One: John & Yoko' is set in New York in 1972 and explores the musical, personal, artistic, social and political worlds of John and Yoko against the backdrop of a turbulent era in American history.
At the heart of the film is the 'One to One' charity event for children with special needs, a big John Lennon concert.
As the director points out, this is 'the only complete concert John gave after leaving the Beatles (digitised and remastered to a quality that makes it unrecognisable to those who remember the VHS version released in the 1980s)'. Starting with a 16mm film of the performance, Macdonald and Rice-Edwards have created a product that focuses on a wide range of previously unseen material from the Lennon archive, including personal phone calls and home movies shot directly by John and Yoko.
