EXCLUSIVE: We’ve learned that Oscar-winning filmmaker Vanessa Roth (Freeheld) is currently in production on an untitled documentary about two-time Oscar nominee and nine-time Grammy winner Mary J. Blige.
Twenty-five years ago, the Bronx and Yonkers, NY native released her seminal and sophomore album “My Life”. Now, Blige is revisiting this music and reflecting on her emotional journey. The doc will center around Blige’s past struggles with poverty, abuse, addiction and heartbreak while at the same time following her on a special concert tour to perform “My Life”, for the first time ever as it approaches its 25-year anniversary. “My Life” is ranked as one of Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Albums of All Time & Time Magazine’s All-Time 100 Albums.
Blige will serve as an EP under her Blue Butterfly banner alongside Tara Long of eOne, Mark Ford and Kevin Lopez of Creature Films, with Sean Combs, and Ashaunna Ayars, Nicole Jackson of Blue Butterfly.
Matt Newman, Co-Head of Movies at Amazon Studios said, “We all know Mary J. Blige as the two-time Oscar nominee, Grammy Award winning, multi-hyphenate who has sold over 80 million records. But through this documentary, audiences will see a raw and honest side of Mary J. Blige opening up about her personal journey of redemption and healing. We are thrilled to share with our worldwide Prime Video customers this exclusive, never-before-seen, inside look into the global legend, Mary J. Blige.”
“I have long admired Mary as an artist, an icon, and a strong, fearless woman. The story of her life has inspired us enormously and we are thrilled to be making this project with her and her team, Ashaunna and Nicole. Mary’s album “My Life” is both iconic and tremendously impactful, we hope that by bringing it to screens we can continue to inspire audiences around the world as her music has done for decades,” added Tara Long, eOne’s President of Global Unscripted, Television.
In addition to the accolades mentioned above, Blige has won four American Music Awards, 12 Billboard Music Awards. Her Oscar noms in the same year were for best supporting actress and best original song in Netflix’s Mudbound, becoming the first person ever nominated in both of those categories in the same year. Billboard ranked her as the most successful R&B/Hip-Hop artist of the past 25 years, with over 4M monthly listeners on Spotify.
Blige is repped by APA, The Lede Company and Granderson Des Rochers LLP.