The never-before-told story of folk-rock icon Judee Sill, who in just two years went from living in a car to appearing on the cover of Rolling Stone. Lost Angel: The Genius of JudeeSill charts her troubled adolescence through her meteoric rise in the music world and her early tragic death. Featuring Linda Ronstadt, Jackson Browne, David Crosby, Graham Nash, Fleet Foxes, David Geffen, JD Souther, Big Thief, Weyes Blood, Tim Page and more. Executive Producers include Maya Hawke and Cheryl Strayed.
Judee Sill in a scene from the documentary “Lost Angel: The Genius of Judee Sill” (2024). Photo courtesy of Greenwich Entertainment.
Interview
Cinema Scholars’ own Glen Dower sat down with filmmakers Andy Brown and Brian Lindstrom to discuss their new documentary feature Lost Angel: The Genius of Judee Sill. They spoke about why the late singer/songwriter fits the genius bill, how Judee’s music still resonates today, and how they were able to get so many music icons to take part in their film, among other topics.
(Edited for content and clarity)
Glen Dower:
Mr. Andy Brown and Mr. Brian Lindstrom, great to meet you, and thank you both for your time today. Let’s talk about Lost Angel: The Genius of Judee Sill.I want to see if you agree with me here, I think terms like ‘genius’, ‘legend’, and ‘hero’ are bandied about too often these days. I’d really like your criteria for the word genius, and why you both think Judee fits the bill. Andy, let’s start with you.
Andy Brown:
Sure! I agree. And I was just saying this yesterday when we were talking to somebody about it. I think that in my opinion, what constitutes it for Judee is that she watched her, at that time, husband do the orchestrations for her first album, observed by his name was Bob Harris. She would hum the parts of the French horn and the strings, and he would write them out. And she watched him and she learned how to do it.
And then by the second album, she charted out everything, all those instruments on her own, and conducted the orchestra herself. So that’s not something that just anybody can do. I think she had the ability, the musical, you know, gift early on. She did study, you know, classical piano and all that stuff from an early age. So she knew how to play piano, but she knew how to play bass, and she could play guitar. She could play guitar better than most people who were professional musicians.
Brian Lindstrom:
And with Linda Ronstadt covering what she termed Heartbreaker, which was Jesus was a Crossmaker, no one could do the guitar part like Judee could. I also think just the fact that we’re talking about her all these years after her death and her music is bigger than ever. And what people like Linda Ronstadt said she had more chops than anyone on the scene except Brian Wilson. That’s pretty good company!
Glen Dower:
That was a great quote. It really is a gift.And I’m in no way musically gifted, I’m a words guy. I want to talk about the opening of the film with the Fleet Foxes. That song is just so haunting. I thought, is this a Fleet Fox song, is it a cover, is it a tribute? And all of a sudden, we’re into Judee’s story. How did you come about with that opening?
Andy Brown:
We experimented with many different openings, and it was fortuitous because we were, yeah, we were trying to come up with a new open. And at that same moment, luckily, the Fleet Foxes went on tour and we’re doing that song. We became aware of that and we asked them if we could record that, and they said they were actually going to be filming a performance. That’s how it happened. But Robin Pecknold, we knew was a big fan of Judee’s before that.
Brian Lindstrom:
A big challenge that we went into this film knowing we’d have to face is how to make this a kind of present-tense experience, not just something that happened in the past. And so we really wanted to show how Judee’s music and I would argue even her life story resonates and it’s alive and people respond to it.
Glen Dower:
Yes, I am so happy about that. Let’s talk about the content of the film itself. What an amazing list of contributors. As you said Linda Ronstadt, David Geffen. How did you get those amazing icons to get involved?
Andy Brown:
Well, we were very lucky. Nick Hornby was a friend of the project early on, and he connected us with Jackson, whom we were fortunate enough to interview. Then Jackson went out of his way to convince David Geffen that he should participate. And that really helped. We were also lucky to get Graham Nash and Linda Ronstadt. And, you know, as you accumulate more kind of community, you know, people who’ve been in the film and it’s easier to get other people to participate.
Brian Lindstrom:
Well, I think it’s interesting to add to the Jackson Browne anecdote that when he got David Geffen to participate, he said to us, I don’t call David Geffen all that often. But when I read the Wikipedia entry about Judee and it implied Geffen had been responsible for her career being ruined, he reached out to Geffen, and then Geffen agreed to participate. And he had never spoken about Judee before, and he wanted to set the record straight in his words.
Judee Sill in a scene from the documentary “Lost Angel: The Genius of Judee Sill” (2024). Photo courtesy of Greenwich Entertainment.
Andy Brown:
First of all, it’s really interesting to get to interview David Geffen because we did it on a building in his estate. And all the workers that we passed, the people that had to let us into the buildings and things, kept saying things like he never does this. You know, he never lets people come here. So we felt very lucky. But after the interview, David gently touched me on the arm and said, ‘Make sure you get my relationship with Judee right, because she was really important to me.’
Glen Dower:
Yes, it’s a responsibility as well. I was going to ask you guys, because her music is alive more than ever like you said, are you adding to your legacy or do you want to build a new one for her through the film?
Brian Lindstrom:
We’re really hoping that we bring new people to her music. I don’t want to speak for Andy, but I think he’d agree. You know, Judee believed that music could heal people and she felt, I think, that it healed herself. And, you know, that’s still true with her music. We’re hoping more people will come to it. There’s a power and a depth there that is really unusual.
Andy Brown:
And I think her, I’m sorry, I just said it’s bittersweet that she can appreciate this. But I think she just would be so tickled to know that after all these years her mission, as Brian said, to heal people through her music is actually happening. And so I think it is more about expanding her audience. You know, our main goal here is to honor her life and, you know, get that right, but really is to turn people on to her songs.
Brian Lindstrom:
And by the way, I think that’s why so many, for lack of a better term, superstars were willing to participate because they felt like she needed to get her due.
Glen Dower:
I think that’s fair. And just some of the creative choices you made. Like you said, it’s a bittersweet story, of course. And we are essentially listening to and watching a ghost. And we have her journal entries that are just really in-depth and really honest about her struggles. She’s written, I’m struggling today, I’ve been strung out. How do you maintain a positive tone and keep on the light side of what she was going through? Because we don’t want to see her as, for example, a junkie. How do you sort of manage the audience into believing she’s worth this?
Brian Lindstrom:
That’s a great question. When we first kind of identified Judee’s true intimates, who were all in LA at that point in 2013, they all to a person said, look, you have to understand, Judy was not like a dark, brooding, unhappy person. She was really lively and loving and a lot of fun to be around. We wanted to make sure that we gave her a kind of full-dimensional treatment. And part of that is just really being honest with her struggles. As she says, the lower down you get your momentum from, the higher up it will propel you. So we felt like if the audience could really understand what she was dealing with, then her kind of achievements and the love that she created in her life would be even more palpable and meaningful.
Judee Sill in a scene from the documentary “Lost Angel: The Genius of Judee Sill” (2024). Photo courtesy of Greenwich Entertainment.
Andy Brown:
And also she contained both those things, the light, and the dark at all times. So that was a balance that while we knew that we were constantly sort of, you know, trying to maintain, it was just in her. It was just who she was. So it was really just representing that as best we could. The light and the dark, as she would put it.
Glen Dower:
She was a poet as well, just from her journal entries we see that. She was amazing. And I’m glad you think she would be tickled. I was thinking, would she say, why are you kissing my ass? And why are you doing all this?
Andy Brown:
Ha! No, I really think she’d be delighted.I really do. And I’d like to think I speak for her sometimes, but I don’t really believe that, but I think she would. I really do.
Brian Lindstrom:
Well, I also think there was a reason she kept those journals, right?
Andy Brown:
I mean, Brian, don’t you think that we kept in our heads the whole time that we wanted Judy to like this film? And that was a real goal of ours. It was, you know.
Brian Lindstrom:
And I think also gave us a kind of comfort knowing that we could go kind of deep and dark because she would want that. She was pretty honest. She was brutally honest. And we never, in all of our readings of her journals and things, we never uncovered a lie. You know, all the things that she said, were true.
Glen Dower:
Yes. Yes spoke the truth, she’s a lost angel, and I think we can agree she was a genius as well. Well, gentlemen, thank you so much for your time, and I am glad I discovered her work through your work.
Andy Brown:
I appreciate that. Thanks so much.
Lost Angel: The Genius of Judee Sill was released theatrically in New York (IFC Center), Los Angeles (Laemmle Noho), and Portland (Cinema 21). Santa Fe (Center For Contemporary Arts), San Francisco (4 Star), Callicoon, NY (Callicoon Theater), and key cities on April 12 with a VOD release on all major platforms in the US and Canada.
