An official look at the upcoming Donna Summer documentary has arrived and from what the trailer reveals, the film is sure to be “Hot Stuff.”
Videos by American Songwriter
Titled Love to Love You after Summer’s 1975 disco hit, the film will be a glimpse inside the star’s intimate home life and explosive music career. With the help of never-before-seen archival footage and interviews with Summer’s family, friends, and peers, Love to Love You promises “an in-depth look at the icon as she creates music that takes her from the avant-garde music scene in Germany to the glitter and bright lights of dance clubs in New York, to worldwide acclaim, her voice and artistry becoming the defining soundtrack of an era,” a release reads.
From the below trailer, the documentary seems poised to do just that. Footage flashes between her iconic onstage performances to her guarded home life. Her disembodied voice can be heard over the video, saying “I have a secret life. You’re looking at me, but what you see is not what I am.”
Summer – who passed away in 2012 after a battle with cancer – is painted as a complicated figure in the clip. “A lot of her life revolved around privacy and secrecy,” a voiceover states. Whether or not those secrets will come to light in the documentary is unknown, but a description of the film guarantees “a deeply personal portrait of Summer on and off the stage” and “a rich window into the surprising range of her artistry, from songwriting to painting, while exploring the highs and lows of a life lived on the global stage.”
The film was co-directed by Summer’s daughter, Brooklyn Sudano, and Oscar-winning filmmaker Roger Ross Williams. Love to Love You will be available to stream on HBO and HBO Max, beginning May 20 at 8 p.m. Eastern.
Photo by Paul Natkin/Getty Images
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