Watch ‘David Byrne’s American Utopia’ teaser for Spike Lee-directed concert film

Despite the countless technological innovations in the 36 years since the release of Jonathan Demme's Stop Making Sense, that iconoclastic time capsule of a 1983 Talking Heads show is still considered by many to be the greatest rock concert film ever made.

Spike Lee and David Byrne aren’t an obvious pairing. While the former’s oeuvre, for the most part, features unflinching stories about Black life in America, the latter became a hero to white college-educated teens everywhere.

just really has no part in any discussion of the work of Byrne or of director Spike Lee, who turned the former Talking Heads front man’s Broadway show into a film that premiered at the slimmed-down TIFF on Thursday, and will come to HBO in October.

Owen Gleiberman Chief Film CriticWhen you watch the filmed version of a show like “Hamilton” or “Springsteen on Broadway,” it can feel like the next best thing to being there. But Spike Lee’s playful and entrancing big-screen version of David Byrne’s “American Utopia” is better than the next best thing — it feels more like a whole new thing.Byrne’s spiky and exuberant 21st-century rock-concert-on-Broadway jamboree, which opened at New York’s Hudson Theatre on Oct.

If there ever was a year for the Toronto Film Festival to open with a musical pep talk for Americans, surely 2020 is it. American Utopia, the concert film of David Byrne’s 2019 Broadway show, directed by Spike Lee, provides a spark of optimism in the era of COVID-19 and civil unrest.

coronavirus pandemic, with a programme of 58 films from around the world — 50 of which will be premiering online.Steve McQueen’s Mangrove will be opening the festival, and the new film from God’s Own Country director Francis Lee Ammonite will be the closing night gala.Further films that are set to premiere include Spike Lee’s filmed take on David Byrne‘s smash-hit Broadway show American Utopia, as well as Miranda July’s new film Kajillionaire and Josephine Decker’s Shirley Jackson

blackface in a 1984 promotional video.The 68-year-old musician has made a statement on social media referring to the 1984 Stop Making Sense concert film, which features Byrne portraying different characters interviewing himself.Byrne tweeted: “Recently a journalist pointed out something I did in a promo video skit in 1984 for the Talking Heads concert film Stop Making Sense.

David Byrne is acknowledging it was a mistake doing a Blackface bit in a performance in 1984.

David Byrne is the latest star to apologize for previously wearing blackface. In the 1980s, to promote the Talking Heads concert film "Stop Making Sense," the musician appeared in a promo video in which he interviewed himself about his work in the form of various characters.

Related: Chris Frantz: 'If you knew David Byrne, you would not be jealous of him' “Recently a journalist pointed out something I did in a promo video skit in 1984 for the Talking Heads concert film Stop Making Sense,” he tweeted.

Greg Evans Associate Editor/Broadway CriticIn a 1984 promotional video for the Talking Heads concert film Stop Making Sense, David Byrne appeared as both himself and a variety of interviewers, including men of color.

David Byrne has addressed his use of black and brownface in a promo skit for Talking Heads‘ 1984 concert film Stop Making Sense.Taking to Twitter, Byrne revealed that a journalist had recently pointed out this particular part of the promo material to him, and proceeded to call the inclusion of the blackface and brownface a “major mistake in judgement”.“In the piece I appear as a number of different characters interviewing myself, and some of the characters portrayed are people of colour,” Byrne

Regardless of your thoughts about Michael Jackson’s legacy in light of the accusations of sexual abuse and assault with underage children, it appears his music is still striking a chord with a generation that is finding themselves surrounded by racism and violence, seemingly on a daily basis. And one of Jackson’s music videos is being re-edited to reflect the modern times by the original director, Spike Lee.

During his yearly Brooklyn MJ Block Party, Spike Lee paid tribute to Chadwick Boseman after his tragic passing. As you probably know, the Black Panther actor had been secretly battling cancer for the past four years.

Spike Lee has shared a new version of the video for Michael Jackson’s ‘They Don’t Care About Us’ to mark what would be the star’s 62nd birthday.The acclaimed director was behind the camera for the two original videos for the track – one shot in Brazil and another set in a prison.The new visuals for the ‘HIStory: Past, Present and Future’ track incorporate footage from 2020’s Black Lives Matter protests from locations around the world, including Rio De Janeiro, Helsinki, Atlanta, Cape Town, and