EXCLUSIVE: Oscar winners Questlove and Jamie Lee Curtis and Emmy winner Billy Porter are joining forces to executive produce I Was Born This Way about Archbishop Carl Bean, the man who performed the titular groundbreaking gay disco anthem in the 1970s.
Oscar-winning filmmaker Daniel Junge and Emmy-winning filmmaker Sam Pollard directed the film, which makes its world premiere at Tribeca Festival on June 5. We have your first look at the documentary in the trailer above.
“Six years in the making,” notes a release,” the film follows the little known story of Bean’s life from his turbulent childhood growing up Black and queer, through his surprising music career, including the 1977 Billboard top 10 Disco hit and gay anthem ‘I Was Born This Way,’ and his departure from the music industry to start the prolific Minority AIDS Project and the world’s first LGBTQ+ church for people of color, Unity Fellowship.”
The release continues, “I Was Born This Way also tracks the surprising back-story of the song and the legacy of Bean’s version, which inspired Lady Gaga’s new modern LGBTQ+ anthem, ‘Born This Way.’”
Interviewed in the film are Lady Gaga, Questlove, Billy Porter, Dionne Warwick, and Rep. Maxine Waters. “It’s a great song,” Lady Gaga says in the trailer, referring to the title track. “What Carl did, not just as a singer but as an activist is very special.”
Archbishop Bean bravely uplifted people with HIV-AIDS at a time when many with the illness were feared and spurned. “I truly believe in the love ethic,” he says in an archival interview. “That is what got me through all of the hell… My motto was, ‘God is love and love is for everyone.’”
Director Daniel Junge said in a statement, “Carl’s story is such a treasure for documentary storytellers like Sam and me, so we took great effort to tell it in the most impactful way possible.”
The film is produced by Wellington Love, Daniel Junge, and Jed Alan. Love observed, “We’re living in a time when our government is systematically erasing LGBTQ and BIPOC people from our collective American history, so a film like I Was Born This Way is not only a means of ensuring a selfless humanitarian like Archbishop Carl Bean is not lost or forgotten, it is also an act of resistance.”
I Was Born This Way is a A JungeFilm Production in association with w/Love Productions, Goodform, Incognegro Productions, Two One Five Entertainment, Milkhaus, and Polygram Entertainment.
Along with Billy Porter, Questlove, and Jamie Lee Curtis, executive producers are Cori Robinson, Josh Green, Zarah Zohlman, Shawn Gee, Tarik Trotter, D.J. Gugenheim, Barbara Bridges, William LaBahn, Kristen Wolf, John Caulkins, Craig Hartzman, James John, Andrew Tobias, Kaylin & Kimala Gray, Lynne Butler, Corey Klaasmayer, and Neal Baer.
The film is edited by Tessa Malsam and Davis Coombe; John Henry serves as director of photography. Original music is composed by John Jennings Boyd and Deandre James Allen-Toole.
I Was Born This Way is an acquisition title at Tribeca, with CAA handling sales.
“Surviving childhood abuse during his upbringing in Baltimore, Archbishop Carl Bean forged a path to New York and Hollywood to do the one thing he knew he was put on earth to do: sing,” Tribeca’s Andrea Passafiume writes in the festival program. “Featuring innovative rotoscope animation and new interviews with Lady Gaga, Billy Porter, Questlove and Dionne Warwick, I Was Born This Way paints a joyful portrait of Bean, his unconventional path and his impactful mission of love.”
In addition to the world premiere on Thursday, June 5, I Was Born This Way will screen at Tribeca on Friday, June 6, and Saturday, June 14.
Watch the trailer for I Was Born This Way above.
The post ‘I Was Born This Way’ Trailer: Tribeca-Bound Doc Celebrates Singer-Activist Carl Bean, Who Made Gay Anthem Famous, Inspiring Lady Gaga’s Hit appeared first on Deadline.
