*Legendary recording artist and black power icon Nina Simone has been reborn in 2015. With her music resurfacing, being quoted at the Oscars and a few documentaries arising, many are wondering about Simone. Who was she, what was her life like and what happened to her?
Look no further. “What Happened, Miss Simone?” a Netflix original documentary is here. The film, from Academy Award®-nominated director Liz Garbus (“Love,” “Marilyn”), was created to fully embody the life of Nina Simone. Garbus, who had total creative control, was a bit skeptical about producing a music film due to music rights and infringement. However, things came together beautifully for Garbus, who is a fan of Simone.
“The family approached a company called Radical Media (which has done a lot of music films),” Garbus told EURweb’s Lee Bailey, “and together they entertained different directors’ ideas of how this film should go down and luckily for me I was the one who went on the journey with the film.”
Going this route Garbus was able to direct a film that was Nina Simone. No one intervened and Lisa Simone Kelly, Nina Simone’s daughter, was even a part of it. Garbus called the partnerships with RadicalMedia a “the dream situation,” because having “the estate on your side but not in control of your storytelling” and Netflix has been “incredibly supportive and adventurous and they have had a big vision for the film and I’m appreciative and lucky for that.”
In creating the film, Garbus met Lisa Simone Kelly, gathered audio and interviews, letters and diaries of Nina Simone. Once she began filming she eventually interviewed Kelly.
“Nine months later when I interviewed her and showed her the film before it went to Sundance, she gave me no notes,” Garbus said that she believes the film was a blessing to Kelly especially since she said “Mommy’s story is out there I can stop having to explain anything,” meaning she can simply refer people to the film to get any answers they are seeking.
The film documents how Nina Simone was an accidental creation by a young girl named Eunice Waymon, a classically trained pianist who grew up in Tryon, North Carolina. Eunice Waymon took on the persona Nina Simone until you couldn’t separate the two.
“She was a young girl who was recognized by the white community in her town as a prodigy and who then supported her classical music education,” Garbus tells of Simone, “She kind of grew up in this glass box separated from both side of the track and ended up studying classical music at Julliard in New York.”
There are just so many things interwoven to fully tell the life of Nina Simone. The film will bring understanding of her classical training, what her dreams and career ideas were and the role she played in the Civil Rights Movement. It touches on the personal aspects as well, including her diagnosis of Manic Depression (Bipolar Disorder) and being treated out of the public eye.
“What Happened, Miss Simone?” was executive produced by Lisa Simone Kelly premiered today, Friday, June 26 at 12: 01am exclusively on Netflix. Netflix has also released the film theatrically in New York and in Los Angeles.
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