John Cale on screen - Documentaries

The Velvet Underground (documentary)

Director: Todd Haynes (2021)

120 minutes. B&W/Colour

In-depth documentary directed by Todd Haynes. Premiered at Cannes Film Festival in France on July 7, 2021. He and Maureen Tucker were filmed in 2018 to share their thoughts. The film garners rave reviews. Limited theatrical release, since Apple paid for it to show it on their streaming service. Released on DVD and Blu-ray with outtakes and extra's.

"It's made me appreciate the personalities and the disparate confluences we laid bare in the Factory and through the development of what would become the Velvet Underground. They came from all over the world and opened this Welsh boy's eyes to the rest of mankind beyond the European experience. It took all these characters to fuel the furnaces. It's important for everyone to understand the entirety of this band, warts and all, but most importantly the organic nature of its honesty. If there had been a blueprint, we didn't want to know. Carving our own distorted path was far more important than trying to be the next big thing. Without the competitiveness that grew out of our fierce desire to bend and ultimately break rock and roll, we'd have been just another Sixties band."

Credits:
Director: Todd Haynes
Producers: Todd Haynes, Christine Vachon, Julie Goldman, Christopher Clements, Carolyn Hepburn, David Blackman
Executive producers: Danny Bennett, Pamela Koffler, John Sloss
Editors: Affonso Gonçalves, Adam Kurnitz
Cinematography: Ed Lachman
Archival producers: Wyatt Stone, Bryan O'Keefe
Music supervision: Randall Poster
Coproducer: Josh Braun, Dan Braun, Esther Robinson
Line producer: Marissa Torres Ericson
Associate producer: J. Daniel Torres
Sound design: Leslie Shatz
Music coordinator: Milena Erke
Music editor: Jahn Sood