Jimi Hendrix, backstage at Winterland Ballroom, San Francisco, 1968.© Jim Marshall Photography LLC
Documentary filmmaker Bao Nguyen will direct Jimi, an upcoming feature about iconic rock star Jimi Hendrix. The film, which has been authorized by the Hendrix estate, is being produced by Network Entertainment, Double Agent, and Experience Hendrix.
Jimi will focus on the career of the singer who died of a drug overdose in 1970 after a meteoric career. Hendrix was part of the London pop scene in the 1960s and came to prominence via his performance at the Monterey Pop Festival in California in 1967. Jimi will include interviews, original photographs, and archival film footage that has been “meticulously curated and restored,” says the synopsis for the planned documentary.
In announcing the new project, Nguyen said: “Telling the story of Jimi Hendrix during his pivotal years in London is both a profound honor and a unique responsibility. London has always been a city that inspires me. Having lived there, I felt a deep connection to its creative energy, much like Jimi did when his creativity reached extraordinary heights.”
The Vietnamese-American director added that “I approach this project with deep respect for his legacy and the cultural significance he holds as an American original. Through this film, I hope to capture the vibrant atmosphere of the 1960s music scene, and his meteoric rise to superstardom, culminating in the legendary show at the 1967 Monterey Pop Festival — a triumphant homecoming where his incendiary performance didn’t just set his guitar alight — it ignited a cultural shift that changed the course of music history.”
Commenting on Nguyen’s plans, Jimi Hendrix’s sister Jamie Hendrix issued a statement that said, “Jimi’s time in London was some of the most pivotal in his life journey and his musical career. The social scene, night life that often bled into day, connections made, decisions on where he wanted to take his music and where he wanted his music to take him; all of that became something of a roadmap for the course his life would take. Just as Bao Nguyen has achieved in his films highlighting the lives of other iconic figures who influenced pop culture, this presentation of Jimi’s London experience will be inspiring and informative — a story told the way it should be.”
Nguyen received three Emmy nominations for his work on The Greatest Night in Pop, which was produced by Lionel Richie. That film chronicled the celebrated benefit concert for African famine relief that brought together many pop superstars to create the celebrated song “We Are the World.”
Other of Nguyen’s documentaries include Live from New York, about the 40th anniversary of Saturday Night Live, and Be Water, a film about martial artist Bruce Lee that was made for ESPN.
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