"Looking Back On Love" film will available on iTunes January 29, 2013. A film by Mathieu Bitton
Kravitz, who lives between Paris and The Bahamas took 3 years to complete the album
Black and White America on the island of Eleuthera where he has his Gregory Town Sound studio.
Bitton spent three years with Kravitz photographing and filming the documentary "Looking back on Love". The film also stars Craig Ross, Zoe Kravitz, Penelope Cruz, Javier Bardem, DJ Military, Herman Leondard, The McPhees, Strombone Shorty, Harold Todd, Michel Hunter, The Rebirth Brass Band, and George Laks. The film premieres at USC School of Cinematic Arts in California on Tuesday, January 29th.
"I gotta represent The Bahamas man..." says Kravitz in the film.
“Film is a natural medium for me,” Bitton says. “It's photography and sound mixed into one." French-born Grammy Award-nominated artist Mathieu Bitton, CEO/Art Director of Candy Tangerine, has designed over 650 CDs and is a world-renowned collector and authority on Black films. Recent projects include the Transformers franchise and Terminator Salvation soundtracks, many film posters, including Kevin McDonald's Marley, Jane's Addcition's "A Cabinet Of Curiosities" and Miles Davis "Bitches Brew: 40th Anniversary Deluxe Edition" boxed sets, and a new Lenny Kravitz CD. Clients have included Sting, Prince, Raphael Saadiq, Smokey Robinson, WAR, Stevie Wonder, Quentin Tarantino, James Brown, John Lee Hooker, Jackson 5, Jakob Dylan, Augustana, Lionel Richie, Harry Belafonte, Iggy Pop, Buddy Guy, Run-DMC, Barry White, and Dolly Parton. Bitton is the 2012 recipient of one of France's highest honors, Chevalier De L'Ordre Des Arts et Des Lettres (Knight of the order of arts & letters). His first feature documentary film Looking Back On Love about Lenny Kravitz will be released in 2013. He is currently working on a book of his photographs. Photo: Polina Rabtseva
Viewers will
experience the Bahamian culture through a day-to-day look at Lenny's
life
Twenty-two years after he exploded onto the music scene, Lenny Kravitz
creates the album he was born to make.
The documentary, "Looking Back On
Love", follows the journey behind the making of Kravitz's recently
released 9th studio album, Black And White America. An in depth look at
the sessions that initially started out as a three-month recording
project, Looking Back On Love is a full-on rock and roll music
production.
Filmed by GRAMMY-Award nominee Mathieu Bitton, viewers will
experience the Bahamian culture through a day-to-day look at Lenny's
life, and watch the artist create and record the songs at his newly
built Bahamas home studio, Gregory Town Sound.
The film includes
exclusive interviews spanning two years and showcases the artist
discussing his creative process, his influences and the recording of the
songs themselves. The spotlight is also on Lenny's recording
techniques, showcasing his musical partner Craig Ross, New Orleans
legend Trombone Shorty, and long time collaborators, George Laks, Harold
Todd and Michael Hunter at work at Gregory Town Sound. The film also
features in depth examination of the album's title song; Lenny's
personal history about his upbringing in a mixed family, the election of
President Obama and the message of love that Lenny has been preaching
for over 20 years.
"It deals with what's going on in my life, and it deals with what's going on in the world."
- Lenny Kravitz
About the filmmaker:
For artist
Mathieu Bitton, what you hear
and what you see are one in the same. Colors and music notes have
similar shades; lyrics and hand-drawn lines have similar emotional
messages. Each genre of music in Bitton’s collection has its own visual
world in his head – jazz takes on certain hues, while rock n’ roll is
another vibrant texture completely. For Bitton, one simply does not
exist without the other. And this special way of merging both mediums
is what has lead Mathieu Bitton to be one of the music world’s most
sought-after designers, creating album covers and packaging, as well as
videos, photographs, logos and more for some of the most iconic artists
and records of the last century, in addition to earning him a Grammy
nomination for his artistic achievement. His vast and incredible body
of work has seen him designing album art for a who’s who of musical
history, including Prince, Lenny Kravitz, Sting, Miles Davis (most
recently, he designed the incredible packaging to the Bitches’ Brew 40th
Anniversary Edition box set), Marvin Gaye, Jane’s Addiction, Bob
Marley, Quincy Jones, James Brown, Taylor Swift, Iggy Pop, Lou Reed,
Dolly Parton and many more. If there’s an album cover that moves you,
inspires you or impacts you, the odds are pretty high that Mathieu
Bitton created it.
“Like a little brother, it is a real pleasure to have him in my life. I
am very touched and impressed by his passion and talent.” —Quincy Jones
