The only film to look at the life of Billie Holiday, Lady Sings The Blues, took some creative license, as we now know some 40+ years later. What we do know is that Lady Day was a complex woman who led a complex life amidst the backdrop of a world where she couldn’t realize herself fully because of the restrictions placed upon Black women who talked about some of the things she talked about in her music. This changes in 2021.
This year, fans will be treated to two new films about the life of Billie Holiday, each one focusing on different aspects of her life.
The first, Billie, explores her life through “tape cassette recordings of interviews with her closest friends, colleagues, lovers and family conducted by jazz critic and biographer, Linda Kuehl,” according to Amsterdam News. The film” intertwines” the lives of the two women and speculates that Kuehl may have been killed in 1978 by someone who knew about her interviews with Billie and wanted to silence her. This film offers a glimpse into the racism and sexism in the jazz world of the 1930s through 1950s. You can find “Billie” on Apple TV, Amazon and DVD.
The second film, The United States vs. Billie Holiday is a Lee Daniels film that tells the story of Billie Holiday’s arrest by the FBI. Actress and singer Andra Day portrays Billie with such accuracy that is described by the Amsterdam News as, “an uncanny likeness to the singer’s real voice. Her performance is memorable and admirable as she takes on Billie’s spirit with seriousness and reverence.”
Jimmy Fletcher, an ambitious Black FBI agent ordered to gain information on Billie, is played by Moonlight star Trevante Rhodes. Viewers learn that Billie was unfairly targeted by Fletcher’s boss Harry Anslinger, a racist, who was the first commissioner of the U.S. Treasury Department’s Federal Bureau of Narcotics. Anslinger’s goal was to prevent Billie from singing “Strange Fruit,” a song about lynching. This is the story Lady Sings The Blues does not tell.
The United States vs. Billie Holiday will be released on Hulu Feb. 26.
