Nina Simone in 2002. File photo by Ezio Petersen/UPI |
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BEVERLY HILLS , Calif., Dec. 7 (UPI) -- Director Liz Garbus' What Happened, Miss Simone?, a documentary about the late music icon Nina Simone, is scheduled to premiere next year on Netflix.
"In What Happened, Miss Simone?, Liz Garbus paints a brave and provocative picture of Nina Simone -- artist, civil rights activist and heroine -- in a film that we've loved from Day 1 and are proud to bring to our viewers around the world," Lisa Nishimura, Netflix's vice president of original documentary programming, said in a statement.
"I'm thrilled that Netflix has embraced the incredible story of Nina Simone and partnered with RadicalMedia on this film," added Garbus. "For each of her millions of fans, Nina feels like a treasured secret. With What Happened, Miss Simone?, I'm excited to help bring her passion, her music, and her story to the world."
Netflix said the film uses never-before-heard audio tapes, recorded over the course of three decades, of Simone telling her life story to various interviewers and biographers.
"From over 100 hours of these recordings, What Happened, Miss Simone? weaves together Nina's narrative, told largely in her own words. Rare concert footage and archival interviews, along with diaries, letters, interviews with Nina's daughter, Lisa Simone Kelly, friends and collaborators, along with other exclusive materials, make this the most authentic, personal, and unflinching telling of the extraordinary life of one of the 20th century's greatest recording artists," a synopsis said.
Simone died in 2003 at the age of 70.
Garbus' films include Love, Marilyn, Bobby Fischer Against the World, There's Something Wrong with Aunt Diane and Girlhood. Her first film, 1998's The Farm: Angola, USA, won the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival.
