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Luther: Never Too Much film image; close on smiling man

Luther: Never Too Much

Portraits

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The dazzling career of legendary singer-songwriter Luther Vandross gets revelatory reappraisal in Dawn Porter’s moving biographical documentary. In addition to making his own beloved hits (Never Too Much; Dance with My Father; Here and Now) the trailblazing soul artist was a titanic musical force in the 1980s and 90s, arranging and producing songs for a staggering range of artists: from David Bowie to Dionne Warwick and Mariah Carey, to name just a few.

Even before his life was cut tragically short at 54, Vandross suffered from media scrutiny about his weight and sexuality, and from pigeonholing within the music industry. Drawn from roughly four decades of interview and performance footage, as well as retrospective assessments by confidantes and artistic contemporaries, Luther is an eye-opening examination of a legacy that we are only now able to fully reckon with, and a reintroduction to music we can’t get enough of.

 

Presented by

Media Partner

     

Community Partner

Director
Featuring

Luther Vandross

Credits
Country of Origin

USA

Year

2024

Language

English

Film Contact
18+

At International Village

19+

At Fifth Avenue

101 min
Art, Music & Photography Black Cinema Documentary LGBTQIA2S+ Women Directors
Raindog Films, Foxxhole Productions

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Credits & Director

Executive Producer

Dawn Porter, Eli Holzman, Aaron Saidman, Tom Mackay, Richard Story, Jon Platt

Producer

Trish D. Chetty, Ged Doherty, Jamie Foxx, Datari Turner, Leah Smith

Cinematography

Bryan Gentry

Editor

Mark Fason

Production Design

Chloe Reisen

Original Music

Robert Glasper

Dawn Porter headshot; Luther: Never Too Much director

Dawn Porter

Dawn Porter is an American documentary filmmaker and the founder of the production company Trilogy Films. Her award-winning films include Gideon’s Army (2012), Trapped (2016), and Bobby Kennedy for President (2018). As a two-time Sundance Film Festival director, Porter’s work has been featured on HBO, Netflix, CNN, PBS, MSNBC, MTV Films, and other platforms. Dawn’s recent projects include The Lady Bird Diaries (2023) and Deadlocked: How America Shaped the Supreme Court (2023), both of which garnered her nominations for two Critics Choice Awards and a Spirit Award.

Filmography: Gideon’s Army (2012); Spies of Mississippi (2014); Trapped (2016); The Way I See It (2020); The Lady Bird Diaries (2023)

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