The best Yōko Ono’s documentary movies
If you love cinema, you will share this ranking of the best Yōko Ono’s movies, although you may have ordered them differently. In any case, we hope you love it and with a little luck discovering a movie that you still don’t know about Yōko Ono.
Let It Be
7.7/10
Documentary film about The Beatles rehearsing and recording songs for the album Let It Be in January 1969. The film features an unannounced rooftop concert by the group, their last performance in public. Released just after the album, it was the final original Beatles release. This film has not been commercially available since the 1980s.
George Harrison: Living in the Material World
8.1/10
Director Martin Scorsese profiles former Beatle George Harrison in this reverent portrait that mixes interviews and archival footage, featuring commentary from the likes of Paul McCartney, Eric Clapton, Ringo Starr and Yoko Ono.
Imagine: John Lennon
7.8/10
The biography of former Beatle, John Lennon—narrated by Lennon himself—with extensive material from Yoko Ono's personal collection, previously unseen footage from Lennon's private archives, and interviews with David Bowie, his first wife Cynthia, second wife Yoko Ono and sons Julian and Sean.
The U.S. vs. John Lennon
7.3/10
A documentary on the life of John Lennon, with a focus on the time in his life when he transformed from a musician into an antiwar activist.
Drunk Stoned Brilliant Dead: The Story of the National Lampoon
7.2/10
A look at the history of the American comedy publication and production company, National Lampoon, from its beginning in the 1970s to 2010, featuring rare and never before seen footage, this is the mind boggling story of The National Lampoon from its subversive and electrifying beginnings, to rebirth as an unlikely Hollywood heavyweight, and beyond. A humour empire like no other, the impact of the magazines irreverent, often shocking, sensibility was nothing short of seismic: this is an institution whose (drunk stoned brilliant) alumni left their fingerprints all over popular culture. Both insanely great and breathtakingly innovative, The National Lampoon created the foundation of modern comic sensibility by setting the bar in comedy impossibly high.
It Was Fifty Years Ago Today! The Beatles: Sgt. Pepper & Beyond
5.5/10
Featuring interviews with former employees, fellow musicians, family members and journalists, and supported by original and exclusive never-seen-before footage, this star-studded rockumentary offers a fascinating insight into the creation and recording of one of the most ground-breaking and influential albums in pop history.
How the Beatles Changed the World
6.8/10
The fascinating story of the cultural, social, spiritual, and musical revolution ignited by the coming of the Beatles. Tracing the impact that these four band members had, first in their native Britain and soon after worldwide, it reappraises the band and follows their path from young subversives to countercultural heroes. Featuring fresh, revealing interviews with key collaborators as well as a wealth of rarely-seen archival footage, this is a bold new take on the most significant band in the history of music and their enduring impact on popular culture.
Superstar: The Life and Times of Andy Warhol
6.9/10
Documentary portrait of Andy Warhol.
Annie Leibovitz: Life Through a Lens
7.4/10
An account of the professional and personal life of renowned American photographer Annie Leibovitz, from her early artistic endeavors to her international success as a photojournalist, war reporter, and pop culture chronicler.
Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer
7/10
In the winter of 2011, after a controversial election, Vladimir Putin was reinstalled as president of Russia. In response, hundreds of thousands of citizens rose up all over the country to challenge the legitimacy of Putin’s rule. Among them were a group of young, radical-feminist punk rockers, better known as Pussy Riot. Wearing colored balaclavas, tights, and summer dresses, they entered Moscow’s most venerated cathedral and dared to sing “Mother Mary, Banish Putin!” Now they have become victims of a “show” trial.
Imagine
7.3/10
A surreal, half-fiction, half real life footage of a day in the life of John lennon and Yoko Ono, composed to music from John's historic 'Imagine' album and Yoko's 'Fly'.
Andy Warhol Screen Tests
The films were made between 1964 and 1966 at Warhol's Factory studio in New York City. Subjects were captured in stark relief by a strong key light, and filmed by Warhol with his stationary 16mm Bolex camera on silent, black and white, 100-foot rolls of film at 24 frames per second. The resulting two-and-a-half-minute film reels were then screened in 'slow motion' at 16 frames per second.
Who Is Harry Nilsson (And Why Is Everybody Talkin' About Him?)
7.6/10
The documentary explores the enigmatic life and music of Harry Nilsson in an attempt to answer the question, "Who is Harry Nilsson?" The film includes new and archive audio and film including interviews with Robin Williams, Yoko Ono, Van Dyke Parks, Randy Newman, Ray Cooper, the Smothers Brothers, and Micky Dolenz. "Who is Harry Nilsson?" uses promotional films, music videos, and home movies; segments from the unreleased documentary made during the recording of Son of Schmilsson (Did Somebody Drop His Mouse?); and excerpts from Nilsson's rare TV appearances in his BBC specials, the "Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour", "Playboy After Dark", and in an episode of "The Ghost and Mrs. Muir".
Michael Jackson: The Legend Continues
7.9/10
Music documentary directed by Patrick T. Kelly.
Scenes from the Life of Andy Warhol: Friendships and Intersections
6.9/10
This intimate portrait of Andy Warhol pulls together a unique library of material shot by New York film legend Jonas Mekas. Spanning from 1963 to 1990, the film features a cast of counterculture icons including Allen Ginsberg, George Maciunas, John Lennon, and Yoko Ono, as well as John and Caroline Kennedy, and Lee Radziwill (Jackie Kennedy Onassis's sister and Warhol muse)—to whom Mekas dedicates the film. The film features footage from the Velvet Underground's first public performance. A portrait of the remarkable life of arguable the twentieth century's most famous artist and leading iconographer.
John & Yoko: Above Us Only Sky
7.4/10
Film telling the untold story of John Lennon's 1971 album Imagine, exploring the creative collaboration between Lennon and Yoko Ono and featuring interviews and never-seen-before footage.
George: The Story of George Maciunas and Fluxus
8.5/10
In 1961 Lithuanian American artist and impresario George Maciunas established the avant-garde art movement Fluxus. George details the rise of Fluxus following a sensationalized tour of “concerts” in Europe in 1962, and continuing in New York for most of the 1960s and ’70s. During this time Maciunas was converting the dying industrial buildings of Soho into a network of artists’ lofts, creating one of the first official real estate co-ops of artist-owned buildings. Maciunas’s life and legacy—as recounted by artists of his generation, including Yoko Ono and Jonas Mekas—ignited debates that remain pivotal to artists working today.
Diaries, Notes, and Sketches
7.4/10
An epic portrait of the New York avant-garde art scene of the 60s.
Gimme Some Truth: The Making of John Lennon's 'Imagine' Album
7.6/10
An instant classic when released in September 1971, John Lennon's Imagine was the ex-Beatle's solo masterpiece, and its musical legacy is matched here by priceless footage of Lennon's creative process, independently edited from original 16-millimeter footage by producer-director Andrew Solt with the hands-off approval of Lennon's widow, Yoko Ono. Incorporating footage from John and Yoko's original film Imagine (clips of which were previously included in the 1988 documentary Imagine: John Lennon), Gimme Some Truth presents Lennon, Ono, coproducer Phil Spector, and a host of gifted musicians in a fluid context of conflict, community, and craftsmanship. Bearing witness to every stage of the recording process, this 63-minute documentary succeeds as a visual diary, a study of familiar music in its infancy, and a revealing portrait of the then-30-year-old Lennon--from witty clown to confrontational perfectionist--at the peak of his post-Fab Four inspiration.
Music
7.6/10
The story of music and the music industry told through interviews with musicians, composers and producers across genres.
