‘Tina’, a new documentary about rock superstar Tina Turner, tells a story in two acts. The first is a tragic portrait of childhood neglect, horrific marital abuse and private suffering. The second is a joyous celebration of personal liberation, creative success, and public worship.
The film, which premieres on HBO on March 27, required a show judge for Oscar-winning filmmakers Dan Lindsay and TJ Martin. They were previously co-directors of the documentary “Undefeated” (2011), a moving look at a downtown soccer team and “LA 92” (2017), an informative rendition of the Los Angeles riots drawn largely from archival footage. is.
Lindsay and Martin interviewed Turner, who reflected on the long, often difficult process of reconciling the lows and highs of her life, from the abuse she suffered by former husband and former co-worker Ike Turner to the astonishing popularity she achieved. in the 1980s as a solo artist – and one of the few black women in rock music.
The documentary features interviews with actor Angela Bassett (who portrayed Turner in the 1993 film “What’s Love Got to Do With It”); journalist Kurt Loder; playwright Katori Hall; Turner’s husband Erwin Bach; and Oprah Winfrey. The film also contains audio recordings of a 1981 interview in People magazine in which Turner, who now lives in Switzerland, told of her disturbing escape from Ike’s abuse.
‘Tina’ – and a Broadway musical about Turner’s life that opened a few months before the pandemic closed theaters, was described as her farewell to public life. In a Zoom interview this week, Lindsay and Martin felt the responsibility to get Turner’s story done right. Here are excerpts from the conversation, edited for length and clarity.
You co-directed films about football and the riots in Los Angeles. What attracted you to Tina Turner as a documentary subject?
Lindsay: We were somewhat reluctant to sign up to do it as our next film. We were approached to make several famous films and music documents, and we always turned them down because we approached the documentary form as a way to create cinema – and it’s going to sound so pretentious. Music documents are often a catalog of songs in search of a story.
But what Tina’s life story offers is a true journey, a true saga. It just so happens that the hero in the center is an iconic musical artist.
Simon Chin, the producer, had already made an agreement with Tina and her husband, Erwin, to do the documentary, and when he approached us to do so, we were concerned. We were also concerned about two men taking the lead. But in the end, we gave direction to talk to Tina and gain a better understanding of her life – especially her point of view on her own story.
Martin: We had tremendous respect for Tina Turner and we knew the broad outlines of her story, but we were by no means superfans. It was a lot that we dived into realizing that we could make a proper film, and we did not necessarily have to make something that served the fans. We can actually be true to Tina’s story, and it was really liberating.
The film shows how Tina’s story of survival inspired millions of people. But it also explores how painful it was when reporters constantly asked her about domestic abuse instead of her solo career. How did you find a balance between acknowledging her trauma and celebrating her success?
Lindsay: It was difficult. How do we position ourselves so that we do not do the same? I think we could find a balance by using archival material to tell the disturbing stories of her life in more detail by using interviews she has already done so that we do not have to ask her to go back and the details to give. of her life with Ike.
We gave her a sense of our point of view before interviewing her so she knew we would cover the abuse, but would not ask her to tell specific details. We tried to tell her story in as respectful a way as possible – not exploitative, not sensational.
Martin: We learned in early conversations with Tina that the pain of her past always lurks around the corner. She will say it herself. She does not mind talking about it [the abuse], but she knows if she does, it comes back in dreams, which is a form of PTSD.
The story has always been that she ‘overcame’ these things. But she’s actively processing, and it’s a lifelong journey to wake up every day and decide she’s going to be a survivor.
In the film, Tina’s husband says that the documentary and the Broadway musical should be her farewell to her American fans and possibly her public life. Is this a context you were aware of when you made the film, and did you feel a greater responsibility because you know it can say goodbye to her?
Lindsay: “This is it. Do not screw it up.” [Laughs.] It became clearer and clearer to us as we went along.
In our interview with Tina, she said: “How do you bend slowly, go away? I appreciate all this love for me, but I’m done, I’m tired, I just want to live with retirement. “We understood the desire, and I think over time we realized what it really meant.
But look, it’s Tina. Who knows, maybe in two years’ time she’s going to record a new album and play stadiums again. I think our point is that she retired from the stage in 2009 and has now done the musical [and the film] was perhaps one last way to say, “I want to retire as Tina Turner, too.”
It occurred to me that younger people in their teens and twenties are probably unfamiliar with her work, certainly not the music she recorded in the 1960s and ’70s. What do you hope takes them away from this movie?
Martin: We thought about it a lot while making the movie. I think an older generation has a sentiment of: “We already know the Ike days. We do not have to wash it again. But the younger generation has a clear palette. We wanted to make sure we give the full breadth of Tina Turner’s story so that viewers arrive at a place of understanding.
The movie has two great takeaways for me. The first is that the process of trauma for some people is exactly that: a process. The second is completely different: the artistry of Tina Turner. The film is not inhabited by a bunch of musicians talking about how amazing she is, but we made sure to give space to the performances.
The hope is that younger generations will see it and realize how unique she was as an artist, choreographer and singer. She was very ahead of her time.