American Symphony

2022 was shaping up to be a magical year for Jon Batiste: he had just won an Oscar for his Soul soundtrack; had a fantastic nightly gig as the bandleader for Late Night with Stephen Colbert; and his song “Freedom,” from his We Are record, was topping the charts. And Batiste was embarking upon his most ambitious work, an assemblage of regional sounds and deep historical themes scheduled to premiere at Carnegie Hall. But then, he received crushing news: his partner, the writer Suleika Jaouad, had a relapse of her leukemia. The filmmaker Matthew Heineman kept his camera rolling as Batiste’s painfully eventful year unfolded. His American Symphony is a startlingly intimate account, showing us how Batiste responded to his family’s crisis with love, creativity and supernatural stamina. It’s one of cinema’s most soulful, honest portraits of an artist at work. (Telluride Film Festival)