Music

Feist doc 'Look at What The Light Did Now' premieres in Montreal

by Ciaran Thompson

When Feist started incorporating imaginative puppetry and striking stage visuals on the tour for her third album The Reminder, she called her old friend, director Anthony Seck, and told him to get here quick and start shooting.

The Canadian singer/songwriter’s instincts were spot on as what was taking place was something special. All of the footage shot during the shows and behind-the-scenes was archived. It was then added with previous filming that captured the creation of the album at an old mansion-turned-recording studio in France called La Frette and now years later a documentary called Look at What the Light Did Now has been released.

The world premiere of the new documentary, which the title is the name of a song Feist covered written by Little Wings, took place last night at The Ukrainian Federation in Montreal as part of the annual arts festival Pop Montreal.

The film not only documents the making of the album and how the stage show was formed on the subsequent tour in support of it, but also the transformation the artist was going through at the time. Once the album was released and after some tracks and music videos were scooped up in iPod ads, Feist became a household name appearing on everything from Saturday Night Live to Sesame Street. In fact Seck said he knew they had enough material for the doc when they were permitted to use the footage of Kermit the Frog speaking with the singer on the red carpet. The transition between supporting MC for Gonzales during his hip-hop days to Grammy-nominated singer is especially interesting.

“It’s not a concert film, but a film about art,” Seck said in an interview before the premiere and added that his own inspiration for the film stems from several pieces by Jean-Luc Godard. The number of artists featured in the film such as Kevin Drew, Andrew Whiteman, Mocky, Jamie Lidell and Feist herself, is immense and they all seem to have their own story to tell. From Gonzales’ recollection of how Feist and her were working on the sound during recording to music video director Patrick Daughters coaxing the singer to jump out a widow, the interviews documented describe all of the aspects of this piece of art that is The Reminder.

Look at What The Light Did Now is certainly a crowning achievement that anyone who has an inkling of musical interest show go and see and has the power to intrigue those, like myself, who aren’t necessarily fans of the singer’s music.