Search The Archive
Lou Reed: Rock and Roll Heart is more than a visual biography. It is the only documentary covering the musician, poet and composer, the man who brought rock and roll into the avant garde. From the beginning, Reed's music has influenced generation after generation of musicians, including David Bowie, Patti Smith, U2, REM and Sonic Youth. As Brian Eno once commented, "The Velvet Underground didn't sell a lot of records, but everyone who bought one started a band."
In 1965 Reed co-founded the Velvet Underground. Their landmark collaboration with Andy Warhol opened the band to mixed-media happenings incorporating dancers, projected film and the first-ever strobe light show. In 1972 Reed embarked on his prolific solo career and his musical range has over the years demonstrated both eclectic and distinctive qualities.
Filmmaker Timothy Greenfield-Sanders - who has filmed Reed and his band in US and European concerts - has produced a documentary for the PBS American Masters series which probes deeper than Reed's surface image or greatest hits. Material is collated from some 30 interviewees, including associates from the Warhol Factory, critics, artists and later musicians Reed inspired: Patti Smith, Sonic Youth's Thurston Moore and many others. Using archival film, still photographs and original footage of Reed at concerts and readings around the world, Greenfield-Sanders transcends the limitations of biopic glorification. Brutally honest as well as highly personal, Lou Reed: Rock and Roll Heart is an exceptional film about one of rock and roll's major creative forces.
Timothy Greenfield-Sanders was born in Florida in 1952 and received an MFA from the American Film Institute. He began his career as a portrait photographer and has been exhibited in the Museum of Modern Art, the Metropolitan Museum and the National Portrait Gallery. His work has been published in Vanity Fair, Life and the New York Times Sunday Magazine.