The Documentary “Moonage Daydream” premiered at the Keene Putnam Theatre from April 21 to 24.
This documentary follows the musical artist David Bowie but with an experimental approach. “Moonage Daydream” contains footage of David Bowie performing with spoken accounts of Bowie talking about life and his approach with his work.
The film was edited in a montage style so it’s not like a typical documentary. Nonetheless, I found the documentary entertaining and thought-provoking.
You learn a lot about Bowie’s uprising in stardom in this documentary and the places he lived such as London, West Berlin, America, and Japan. It was cool seeing the transformation over the film from his earlier work to his later and most recent stuff. I felt the pacing of the documentary was phenomenal and wellinformative about Bowie. What I liked most about the documentary is no matter how much you know about Bowie, it was refreshing to listen about the person from their point of view. I liked the concert footage, experimental film, and also Bowie’s own personal paintings and media he created on VHS.
This documentary is very fitting aesthetically as it was colorful and visually stunning with the choice of B- roll they utilized over Bowie’s voice overs. I also like the incorporation of Bowie’s music for the soundtrack while utilizing other music as well.
It was impressive to see the crowd sizes at Bowie’s concerts during the‘70s and ‘80s, and later in his career, how progressive his fans were.
Footage of men in London in the ‘70s wearing makeup and waiting in line, women gushing over Bowie while they waited outside to get into the venue, and other moments I felt made it cool to see how people of the time reacted to the artist like Bowie.
It was fascinating to see the way Bowie approached life and his attitude toward it. In the documentary, he said how he views his art as a tool to better understand himself and theworld. It was cool to see how he perceives his life and how much he appreciates it as he gets older.
What I like about Bowie as an artist is how he evolved over his career and how he dealt with that. Some argue that it’s good and necessary for artists to progress in their music and their sound. It is safe to say that Bowie embraced that approach and utilized it in his work.
Whether you are a Bowie fan or know nothing about him, I think this documentary is excellent in capturing the essence of him and serves as a good introduction into him. It would be amazing to see more types of documentaries like this on others in the future. I’ve always been interested in music documentaries and felt this one is a great one.
Shawn Belden can be contacted
at sbelden@keene.edu
