I was never familiar with any songs, but I had always heard the name of the famous singer, so this documentary was a chance for me to get to know more about her and her work. Basically, this explores the life and career of jazz singer Billie Holliday, through a series of recorded audio interviews, some archive television footage and live performances, and many photographs. Specifically, the film is based around recorded audio cassettes from the 1970s by Linda Lipnack Kuehl, researching for a book about Holiday that was never completed. Kuehl's interviews were with friends, family members, band members, peers from 1930s Harlem, piano players, psychiatrists, and a pimp. Holiday made the news on numerous occasions for her relationships, but many thought her career would be damaged when she was arrested and imprisoned for possession of drugs. She spent two years incarcerated and could not escape the addictions of alcohol and drugs, but she is always remembered for her mesmerising voice. Holiday may not be well known for chart success, but her vocal talent is certainly memorable, with songs like "Strange Fruit", "God Bless the Child", "Blue Moon", "Lover Man" and "Summertime". Interviewed celebrities and those featured in the audio and television included Tony Bennett, Sylvia Syms, Louis Armstrong, John Hammond (music producer),Tom Jones and Orson Welles. If you are unfamiliar, like me, with Billie Holiday, then this is an interesting insight into a troubled but talented star, a worthwhile documentary. Billie Holiday - Lady Sings the Blues was number 38 on The 100 Greatest Albums. Good!

Besides this doc I also just watched the newly released DVD "Sid & Judy" (Garland) both foretelling the enormous pressures of achievement. Money & drugs/alcohol, as usual, play a part. This doc compiles the many years of research from the intelligent, yet sensitive, 125 audio taped interviews of Linda Lipnack Kuehl along with her research into the paper trail documentation of Billie's life. Unfortunately Linda died before she could edit it all into a source story (although many other's have utilized her research) on Billie's life. The saddest part is two years before Billie died (1959 with just $750) she married McKay, and even though she intended to divorce & create a will, it was never completed & her estate went to him & his family.

Note: 1937, Count Basie introduces Billie (age 22) into the band and to the audience with perhaps the first recorded singing rhyming rap lyric. Amazing to hear how current it sounded.

It's a documentary on the singer Billie Holiday based on research and oral interviews by Linda Lipnack Kuehl, who died in 1978 under mysterious circumstances, which meant she could not finish the book she was writing about Holiday.

I watched this movie because I was very disappointed when I watched "Lady Sings the Blues" (1972) starring Diana Ross playing Billie Holiday. The story told in that movie seemed to have a passing connection to reality, and much of it was pretty bad despite the praise Ross received for playing the role. Ross did not have the depth to play such a complex person.

This 90-minute documentary makes excellent use of Kuehl's audio interviews of musicians that worked with Holiday, friends from her early life, and people like one of the pimps from her early life as a prostitute. It was chilling to hear him laugh about prostitutes liking to be beaten up. Accompanying the interviews is a lot of Holiday music and film footage that matches well the interviews. The most striking musical piece for me was "Strange Fruit," which explicitly references victims of lynching as the "strange fruit."

In my mind, if you want to learn about the real Billie Holiday, this is the film to see.