Todd Haynes has announced from the Locarno Film Festival – where he will receive the Pardo d’onore Manor career achievement award, 26 years after his debut Poison appeared in the competition – that he is developing a documentary on The Velvet Underground. It will be Haynes’ first documentary, created alongside longtime producing partner Christine Vachon.
The Velvet Underground have long been heralded as innovators of the avant-garde, though achieved little commercial success during their existence. The group’s influence under lead Lou Reed spread throughout the music and art world. For those who don’t recognise their music, it is the album artwork created by brief manager Andy Warhol that resonates, from debut album The Velvet Underground & Nico.
50 years after the album’s release, Haynes hopes to bring to light the group’s creativity, unveiling the mystery behind the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted band.
Haynes states the film will be “an intensely visual experience,” relying “certainly on Warhol films“. A challenge due to the lack of documentation of the group, he is reportedly looking forward to “the thrill of the research and visual assemblage” and “getting in deep to the resources and material and stock and archival footage,” as well as conducting new interviews with surviving members.
Todd Haynes is “one of America’s most internationally revered auteurs” despite his limited considerably limited resume. Nonetheless, he’s a man of quality over quantity, including underappreciated-Academy-Award-snubbed Carol in his name; I’ll never stop being bitter.
Haynes is a man of wonder, of paradoxes, of the questionable. His continued creativity and influence, arguably against small numbers, echoes that of The Velvet Underground which reached the likes of David Bowie. The project is one that calls for acclaim.
#Peace.Love.ToddHaynes
