
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
Luther Vandross
USA
2024
English
At International Village
At Fifth Avenue
Book Tickets
Indigenous & Community Access
Indigenous Access Tickets Community Access Tickets Ticket Donation Requests
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
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)
Missing VIFF? Check out what's playing at the VIFF Centre
Samia
Despite growing up in Mogadishu, Somalia, during the civil war, Samia Yusuf Omar persists in her dream of becoming an Olympic athlete and competes in Beijing, 2008 -- with London, 2012 next on her agenda. Based on a true story.
Melancholia
Lars von Trier squares up to the end times with this grandly luxuriant but surprisingly punky sci-fi, set in an imposing country mansion house, where Justine (Kirsten Dunst) blows up what's supposed to be the happiest day of her life.
Sudan, Remember Us
A portrait of young artists and activists, Meddeb's doc charts events in Khartoum between 2019 -- in the immediate wake of the revolution that deposed dictator Omar al-Bashir -- and the mood four years later, when the country has been torn apart by civil war.