“It’s not a rock ‘n’ roll film, it’s not a concert film, it’s a humanistic film,” Patti Smith told reporters on Saturday after the mostly black and white documentary – 12 years in the making – was screened at the Berlin Film Festival. The punk pioneer actually performed at her press conference playing “My Blakean Year” with her acoustic guitar, which drew a standing ovation.
“People have asked me about documentaries for decades and I never really wanted to do anything because I always imagined documentaries as something you did after someone died,” she told Variety. “But when [director] Steven Sebring came into my life, I had hit a very low point—my husband had died, my brother had died—and having him believe in me was actually helpful.”
Watch: “Patti Smith: Dream of Life” Trailer
