David Bowie Is
Here’s a strange beast…a film about an exhibition about David Bowie. The highly acclaimed David Bowie Is exhibition is due to take up residency in Melbourne beginning in July and this documentary, shot on the last day of the original exhibition at London’s Victoria & Albert Museum in 2013, serves as a primer for the big event down under.
Now, I admit that this whole deal smacks of blatant opportunism. After all, New Zealanders are being asked to shell out their hard-earned money to see a film that is ostensibly one long ad to encourage people to spend even more money to fly over to Melbourne to see the exhibition in person.
Well, that’s one way to look at it. And if the film turned out to be as exciting as the average TV ad, we wouldn’t even be here discussing it. But after watching the David Bowie Is doco, my first instinct was to throw my copy of Ziggy Stardust on the turntable (which I did), and then plot a way to make my way over to Melbourne. So, if nothing else, it’s an excellent piece of propaganda.
But it’s more than that.
Let’s face it, not everyone can afford to go running off to Melbourne, and this film serves as the next best thing. After all, there are an awful lot of Bowie fans in New Zealand.
So, what can you expect to see in the film?
Lots of Bowie ephemera…film clips, handwritten lyrics, photos, costumes along with a few people talking about David himself.
I should point out that Bowie himself was not involved with the exhibit or this film, but there are plenty of his friends on hand to extoll his virtues.
Japanese clothing designer Kansai Yamamoto takes the stand to say a few words about the man as does Pulp front man Jarvis Cocker and photographer Terry O’Neill, who reveals the behind the scenes story of his infamous 
photo of Bowie with the giant dog.
Elsewhere we see Bowie’s storyboard for a proposed Diamond Dogs film, a neatly-typed letter from the mid-60s announcing David’s name change from Jones to Bowie and Brian Eno’s box of cards that helped generate the random lyrics for the Heroes and Low albums.
V&A curators Victoria Broackes and Geoffrey Marsh act as our hosts, walking us through the spellbinding halls of the museum, decked out with more Bowie stuff than one little Jean Genie could imagine.
Sure, this is a shameless plug for a much bigger show, but as a long-time Bowie fan…I too was transfixed by his 1972 appearance on Top Of The Pops where he sang Starman…I admit to being totally taken by David Bowie Is. Now, what are flights to Melbourne going for these days…?
Marty Duda
David Bowie Is opens nationwide on Thursday, May 21st.
