The Return of Tanya Tucker – Featuring Brandi Carlile, directed by Kathlyn Horan (The If Project), made its World Premiere at this year’s SXSW Film Festival in March and went on to win the Audience Award in the 24 Beats Per Second category. Sony Pictures Classics acquired worldwide rights to the feature documentary shortly after the screening.
Tucker’s career began as a child and hit the spotlight with her #1 hit, “Delta Dawn” at age 13. She had fame and fortune as a 70s teenager, followed by actions that led to her being in the tabloids quite a bit in the 80s. She loved her music, but like many musical artists, took advantage of exploring other genres like rock n roll music and some industry folks just weren’t having it. She fell out of favor and then left music after her father’s death. He had served as her manager since childhood.
Grammy-winning singer/songwriter Brandi Carlile has been a fan of Tucker and wrote several songs with Tucker’s life in mind. After a meeting between the two, the making of Tanya’s first album in nearly two decades started to take shape, but not without a sense of uncertainty on Tucker’s behalf. With Brandi’s reassurance each step of the way (and Shooter Jennings talents), the result was “While I’m Living” (2019), Tucker’s first ever Grammy win, and a feature documentary that landed at SXSW.
Scenes of Tucker claiming her long-overdue Grammy on screen, (and her presence at the Zach Theater for the screening I attended) are awesome and very memorable as she sat close to where I was seated before the now 60+ year old artist strutted up to the theater stage for the Q&A after the film credits rolled.
The film is directed by Kathlyn Horan (The If Project), whose TinFish Films produced alongside Motto Pictures’ Julie Goldman, Christopher Clements, and Carolyn Hepburn (The Velvet Underground), in association with Impact Partners and Artemis Rising. Executive Producers are Lynn Hubbard and David Zapolsky, Jenny Raskin, Geralyn White Dreyfous, The Wadsworth Family, Regina K. Scully, Adam and Melony Lewis, InMaat Productions and Brandi Carlile.
Genre: Documentary, Music Runtime: 1 hour and 48 minutes
Sony Pictures Classics (SPC) acquired worldwide rights to the feature documentary after the world premiere at SXSW in March. The theatrical release date has not yet been received from SPC, but if not later this year, hopefully early 2023.
Source: SXSW, Sony Pictures Classics