To Be Born Again Documentary To Be Released In Movie Theaters

Times Online
Film to show Van Morrison is own man
The Northern Ireland-born singer hopes to clear up 'myths' about his past

Nobody ever suspected there’d be days like this: Van Morrison is directing a documentary chronicling his experience in reviving Astral Weeks, a 40-year-old album, in an effort to dispel myths about himself and his career.

One of the music industry’s most reluctant celebrities, the Northern Ireland-born singer-songwriter would never have been expected to co-operate with a behind-the-scenes documentary, let alone make it. Entitled To Be Born Again, it will be released early next year.

The documentary will show Morrison rehearsing for the Astral Weeks tour which began at the Hollywood Bowl last November, and contains lengthy interviews with him and fly-on-the-wall footage shot over the past year.

To Be Born Again will first be shown in arthouse cinemas in New York and Los Angeles, and Morrison is also considering entering the production for the Sundance and Cannes film festivals.

The musician, who has spent much of his career avoiding the media, said he decided to make the documentary so he could “set the record straight”.

Gigi Lee, Van Morrison’s business partner, said he wants to correct a number of misconceptions, such as the belief that all his songs are autobiographical.

“Van tells his own story for the first time so people can hear the truth direct from the man himself rather than relying on the false planted stories of any tabloid,” said Lee.

“The film dispels all the books written by those who do not know him and never met him, who took it upon themselves to tell the public tall tales. It dispels the pretenders and false friends quite well.

“It’s all Van in fine form — raw, candid and completely brilliant in his ability to convey to the audience the nuance of his music. It’s his story, direct from him, without all the mythology connected to it, without all the voluminous fabrications that have been written about it.”

A trailer for the documentary, carried on the website of producer Darren Doane, shows Morrison in the back of a car. He spots some fans with records on a street corner and shouts out the window to them, in a gruff American accent: “Why don’t you buy some new ones?” before rolling up the window and muttering, “f***”.

In another part of the trailer, 64-year-old Morrison tells the camera: “I’ve got these scars. Why do I have to keep showing people the scars all the time, you know what I mean?”

Morrison would like the film to depict him as “a proud Ulster-Scot”, Lee said, “and that whatever people derive from his music is much more about them and their thoughts and projections than him as a songwriter. Each composition is a made-up, architected song and story — his songs are not at all autobiographical”.

Last year at the Hollywood Bowl was the first time Morrison had performed Astral Weeks in one complete concert set. A live album and film — Astral Weeks: Live at the Hollywood Bowl — on Morrison’s new EMI-distributed label, Listen to the Lion Records, followed. There was also a film of the concert, which included an orchestral string section and some of the musicians who had played on the original Astral Weeks sessions in 1968.

Written when he was just 23 and recorded in two days, Astral Weeks failed to crack the charts when it was originally released. The album sold poorly for years and was neglected by his record company.

“It received no promotion from Warner Brothers — that’s why I never got to play the songs live,” Morrison told Rolling Stone magazine last November. But the album has since been hailed as the Belfast musician’s best work. In 2003, Rolling Stone rated Astral Weeks No 19 on its list of 500 greatest albums of all time.

Morrison has also shied away from award ceremonies. He wasn’t in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1993 when he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, though he did accept honorary degrees from the University of Ulster in 1992 and Queen’s University in 2001. He also became an OBE in 1996.
-Gabrielle Monaghan