Documentary corner: 20 Feet From Stardom

Darlene Love, Merry Clayton, Lisa Fischer… you probably don’t know these names but I guarantee you know the voices. 20 Feet from Stardom is a talking-heads documentary that tells of the relatively unknown world of such backup vocalists. Prior to making this film, its director, Morgan Neville, spent much of his career documenting various musician’s careers, from Jack Clement to Johnny Cash to Iggy Pop; with this feature however, he gives us his most ambitious project, as well as his first Oscar winner. Going into this film I had a lot of expectations about what I was going to see; I anticipated a depressing tale of talent-gone-unnoticed, and failure to achieve one’s dreams. This isn’t what I got.

In actuality the message of this film is rather uplifting: Darlene Love, for example, despite many hardships, is shown being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, touring with Sting and The Rolling Stones, and performing on David Letterman come the end. In fact, my favourite anecdote from the entire feature is when Love talks about how she cleaned houses during a lull in her career before she heard ‘Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)’ play on the radio, a hit song for which she had provided ghost vocals, an experience that spurred her to return to music and find success. By the end of the film we are treated to a plethora of uplifting philosophies held by these women, who love singing and simply want to share their passion. Many are happy to stay out of the limelight and share their gift without the hardships of fame – as Lisa Fisher says, had she made it big she probably would have OD’d within a year.

A specific focus is given to the fact that many backup vocalists were – and continue to be – black women with a background in gospel singing, and many of issues around discrimination and institutionalised racism are explored. Whilst this is a very interesting topic, it is one that could well warrant its very own documentary, and these parts of the film represent its overall weaknesses, where the director seems to have spread himself too thin. I would have much preferred a more focused look at fewer of these women, or a more nuanced view on the race issues, or the evolution of rock and roll. Having all of these topics in one film is a simply cramming, and while we get a bit of information about a lot of things, we never get to spend enough time with any of the women to really form a connection. All the best documentaries have an emotional element we can become invested in, along with a clear narrative, but it is this element 20 Feet lacks. Had I seen it as a TV documentary (or better yet 5-part series), I would have loved it. But as a feature however? It doesn’t really hold up.