The unique styles and costumes contained in the David Bowie Archive is just a sampling of what can be seen in the new documentary “David Bowie Is,” which will be playing one time only tonight at The Loft Cinema.
Jeff Yanc, the program director at The Loft Cinema, said that he’s very excited to see the documentary on screen, as he has been a big Bowie fan since childhood. Also, Yanc’s excitement stems from Bowie’s ability to reinvent himself throughout the decades, and he thinks Bowie’s ability to remain interesting to his fans is awe-inspiring.
Bowie explores all spectrums of musical innovation, so being a cultural icon comes as no surprise. From Ziggy Stardust to the experimental R&B/soul phase in the mid 1970s, Bowie has proven to be like a chameleon, adapting to different styles of the era.
More than 300 objects are featured in the archive, which conveys Bowie’s ubiquitous influence in art, film and contemporary culture. Together with the documentary, both will provide a sweeping overview of Bowie’s career and how he has impacted music culture.
“This new documentary, ‘David Bowie Is,’ will be very interesting in terms of the Bowie audience, because it’s not really a traditional music documentary or concert film but instead focuses on Bowie’s art, which is a whole other interesting aspect of his persona,” Yanc said.
The David Bowie Archive tips its hat to the artist’s progressive approach in integrating the visual arts and sound by arranging the exhibition so that during the tour, the audio changes from room to room to show different aspects of Bowie.
“I think the key thing of Bowie is that he is a personality that is able to change, always, not only by his looks, of course, but by his sounds,” said Tim Renner, a music producer, journalist and author.
Bowie’s ability to constantly reinvent himself remains a source of admiration from all, including Yanc, along with his ability to stay relevant to the era and trends and interesting to the public over the past several decades.
To show how popular or how fascinating Bowie is to the people of Tucson, Yanc said that earlier in the year, the Loft screened two of his concert films and the 1986 feature film “Labyrinth” in the Cult Classics series in October. The film is consistently one of the most popular cult films that is shown at the Loft Cinema — an indication that Bowie still fascinates a lot of people.
Fun side note: most of the music and songs in “Labyrinth” were written and performed by David Bowie himself. Not only does he act, but Bowie sings and composed the music for the film.
The Loft will also raffle some items off that a Bowie fan will appreciate, such as a hardcover companion book to the documentary and a Bowie vinyl picture disc.
The documentary will be screened today at 7 p.m. at The Loft. Visit in-person for tickets or reserve them over the phone.
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Follow Ivana Goldtooth on Twitter @goldiechik93
