News about the documentary

I am merging a few topics about this documentary


Here is some "news" coming from the Martin Scorsese activities.

The article has a picture btw.

Director scours city archives in search for truth about Beatles star George Harrison

Dec 27 2008 by Laura Sharpe, Liverpool Daily Post

http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/...4375-22556115/

FILM director Martin Scorsese has been digging into Liverpool’s archives as he prepares to film an authorised documentary on the late George Harrison.

The film, set to go into production next year, will focus on Harrison’s spiritual and religious beliefs.

And staff at Liverpool’s Record Office believe they have stumbled on evidence which might explain why the guitarist became so religious.

Aside from sending old photographs of Liverpool and baptism records to Hollywood the research team have uncovered an old school register which shows an anomaly about Harrison.

The register, from Dovedale Junior School, shows Harrison, who lived at Upton Green, Speke, was exempt from religious education.

It reveals his parents, Harold and Louise, asked for him to be excluded from the morning prayers and assembly.

One of only a handful of exempted pupils, the register also shows a difference between Harrison and his older brother, Peter, who wasn’t excluded.

Kevin Roach, from Liverpool Record Office, said: “George was brought up a Catholic, but attended a Church of England School, but we still don’t know why he was ‘exempt’.

Scorsese has already produced a documentary about the life of Bob Dylan up to 1966, No Direction Home, and the highly acclaimed concert film of Rolling Stones, Shine a Light, which was released this year.

For this latest project, he is working alongside Harrison’s widow, Olivia, whom he has asked to co-produce the film.

Paul McCartney and Ringo Star are also thought to have agreed to participate.

Other records sent to Grove Street Films show Harrison’s baptism at Our Lady of Good Health, Wavertree, in March, 1943.

Aside from attending the same primary school as John Lennon, the school records also shows the Harrison family’s move to Speke and his attendance at the former Liverpool Institute.

Better known as Paul McCartney’s LIPA, Harrison left the institute on July 23, 1959.

Photographs of Arnold Grove taken in the early 1970s, the church of his baptism and photographs of the new council houses next to the old Speke village buildings have also been faxed to America.

Mr Roach added: “These documents chart the facts of his early life and rather than listening to myth or reading old newspaper reports the film crew have asked for all the evidence.

“Despite this there is so much we still don’t know about George and the Beatles, for example we have never found any record of where John Lennon was baptised if he was at all.”

The film, which is likely to go into production next year and take several years to complete is thought to have been sparked by the discovery of a lost interview with Harrison last month.

Recorded by journalist Miranda Ward in 1967, Harrison talks frankly about his life, Eastern politics and drugs

thanks so much, FPSHOT. I am really interested in watching the film once it comes out

I've been wondering what's been going on with this movie cuz I havent heard much about it in awhile. Thanks for posting that!

There is some more info about George being baptised.

I am sure many of you will know the website stuck-inside-a-cloud.net . That one is created by one of the moderators of the official George Harrison forum who about 8 years about did some research on this.

Here is the link which is worthwhile reading

p.s. please respect the article copyright from that website and not copy parts of it here.

http://www.stuck-inside-a-cloud.net/religion.html

He was baptised on my birthday 14.3 :)
'Georgius Harrison :)

FPSHOT, I could really get into raising my glass to you for consistently providing good information.

Thanks for the information! This is really interesting and I'm going to be looking forward to that film.

Peeking back on these threads, too...

http://www.beatlelinks.net/forums/sh...ad.php?t=31362

http://www.beatlelinks.net/forums/sh...t=miranda+ward



It is resonant with the George who also was supportive of the Natural Law party. What he says in 1967 to Ms Ward, he continues to support into that period of his life.

I am curious how this controversial interview will be. For instance, I know George was no fan of bipartisan politics and very much supported third party options. He said the two major political parties in America were 'essentially the same.' Could this be what they mean when they say controversial?

I believe as in the Natural Law party, George would have liked to see a spiritualizing of the political agenda. For instance, Maharishi's NLP meditates as a group before deciding on any major issue.

Originally Posted by Hari's Chick

I believe as in the Natural Law party, George would have liked to see a spiritualizing of the political agenda. For instance, Maharishi's NLP meditates as a group before deciding on any major issue.

I believe meditation more and more has become a part of business and political life. You can read that in interviews with for instance business and political leaders and from those who introduce those meditation teachings. I believe Deepak Chopra is one who introduces it, i am not sure though.

We may certainly say that George in a way has played a role as a bridge builder and eye-opener in that development.

As for that interview HC, Miranda Ward is a member here so maybe she will have an answer or comment here for you/us when she signs in again

There is an update on the documentary from Robert Friedman

Scorsese also talked to me about his upcoming BBC documentary about George Harrison. “We’ve talked to everyone. We did Paul and Ringo, and Olivia Harrison. She’s the one who gave us the rights for this.” Scorsese has also interviewed Ravi Shankar and most of George’s friends. BBC will air the film in the U.K. but it may have a theatrical release in the U.S., he says.


http://showbiz411.blogs.thr.com/2009...eorge-harriso/

There is an indication that this will go on air in the next fall.

Gary Wright has announced a new album - see separate topic - and the article says

"This fall, Wright will appear in Martin Scorcese’s GEORGE HARRISON biopic "

Here's an update

http://www.variety.com/article/VR111...ryid=3628&cs=1

Scorsese is 'Living in the Material World'

Helmer reveals plans for upcoming doc on George Harrison



Martin Scorsese revealed Thursday that he has finished shooting documentary "Living in the Material World: George Harrison," working in tandem with Olivia Harrison, the musician's widow.


Producers are Scorsese, Harrison and Exclusive Media co-chair/CEO Nigel Sinclair. A 2011 release date is being eyed.


Exclusive, which holds worldwide rights, is shopping the project at Cannes, where Scorsese and Harrison are promoting the doc. There's no domestic distrib yet.


"Living in the Material World" is a production of Scorsese's Sikelia Prods., Olivia Harrison's Grove Street Prods. and Exclusive's Spitfire Pictures documentary label.



Scorsese is fascinated by rock 'n' roll musicians, and has chronicled some of the most iconic artists of the 20th century, including the Band ("The Last Waltz"), the Rolling Stones ("Shine a Light"), Bob Dylan ("No Direction Home: Bob Dylan") and, now, George Harrison.


Scorsese said the former Beatles' life was a remarkable musical and spiritual voyage. He and Olivia Harrison both said George Harrison was always trying to find the balance between the physical and the spiritual, hence the film's title.


"I grew up a Roman Catholic and wanted to become a priest, so it is a subject matter that has never left me. The more you're in the material world, the more the search for serenity," Scorsese said.


Harrison said she spent countless hours pouring through her husband's notes, cassette tapes and photos. Many of those materials have never been made public before.


Film also uses never-before-seen footage in tracing the guitarist and songwriter's life, from his days with the Beatles until his death in 2001. It includes interviews with those closest to him, including Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Eric Clapton, Eric Idle, Tom Petty, Yoko Ono and Phil Spector.
Harrison wrote and released songs until his death. One note his widow found: "Goats on a roof."


Project reteams Scorsese, Sinclair and exec producer Margaret Bodde, who worked together on "No Direction Home."


"Living in the Material World" is now being edited by David Tedeschi, who cut both "No Direction Home" and "Shine a Light."


Scorsese said he worked on the doc simultaneously with "Shutter Island," and that working on a nonfiction film and a feature at the same time is a liberating experience. Similarly, he worked on "No Direction" at the same time that he was making "The Aviator."


"In a complicated way, it frees me from the constrictions of a feature. I have a narrative freedom," Scorsese said.

This is something that so many people are eagerly awaiting.

Scorsese elaborates on George Harrison documentary

Film is an exploration of the Beatle's journey as an artist

By Jay A. Fernandez, The Hollywood Reporter

May 16, 2010

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/...92f27487a?pn=1


Martin Scorsese, Olivia Harrison and Nigel Sinclair (Getty)

CANNES -- Martin Scorsese swept into the Cap d'Antibes Beach Hotel down the coast from Cannes on Saturday afternoon with George Harrison's widow, Olivia. The two have been collaborating on a documentary about the famous songwriter for the past three years and are finally nearing the end of a long and winding road.

Titled "Living in the Material World: George Harrison," the documentary will take on the whole of the Beatles guitarist's life before, during and after his time in the world's most popular and successful band. Producer Nigel Sinclair of Exclusive Media Group, home of the Spitfire Pictures label that will release the doc, was also on hand to provide background and perspective on the forthcoming project.

"His music is very important to me," Scorsese said of Harrison. "So I was interested in the journey that he took as an artist. The film is an exploration. We don't know. We're just feeling our way through."

Among other things, Scorsese says he related to Harrison's quest for "spirituality," something the filmmaker has explored his whole life, and especially in movies from "Mean Streets" to "Kundun."

"That subject matter has never left me," says Scorsese. "The more you're in the material world, the more there is a tendency for a search for serenity and a need to not be distracted by physical elements that are around you."

"He always said he gave his nervous system for the Beatles," Olivia chimes in.
"I'm an outsider on this," says Scorsese, taking on the project from the perspective of a curious fan. He tells the story of one morning getting ready for school at NYU on the Lower East Side in the early '60s, when an AM radio DJ announced that he was going to play the very first stateside single of the Beatles. Scorsese says he heard the song and felt it was the first time U.K. pop could really hold up to American pop music.

Scorsese met Harrison several times, first when he, Jack Nicholson and Robbie Robertson knocked on his door in a frantic moment during the filming of "The Last Waltz" in the late '70s, and then again in the early '90s.

Olivia finally initiated the current project several years ago because she says she had been approached by numerous production companies, including the BBC, looking to make a documentary about Harrison from the moment he died in 2001. She resisted at first because Harrison had always wanted to do his own documentary using his own archive of videos.

Eventually, she realized it "was something that needed to be done," and was pointed to Sinclair, who had produced the Bob Dylan documentary "No Direction Home" that Scorsese directed. But still, it was a traumatic experience for her to dig back through all of that history.

"This is a deeply personal journey for me, it's been excruciating," she says. "I've been archiving for five years -- 35 years, really. Throwing cassettes and letters in drawers, little things and pieces of paper that you find that say, 'Goats on my roof.' You think, What does that mean?"



She says that during the research period, Scorsese would ask for something from 1945, she would dig something up, and then get lost in old letters, drawings, ideas and reveries. Or she'd come across a lost cassette from 1966 with music she had never heard.

"So that's been wonderful, but emotional, too," Olivia says. "But I feel really safe, I feel protected. Marty had a connection with George, and they spent time together. And he's passionate about film and music as George was passionate about music and film."

"This is undertaken, not casually," Scorsese says. "It's a great deal of reticence and thinking."

And juggling, since the director was working on it as he developed and shot "Shutter Island." His editor on the Dylan doc, David Tedeschi, has been working on the Harrison piece as well, and would forge ahead when Scorsese was indisposed on the fiction film. Scorsese notes that their work on the Dylan film stretched from "The Aviator" through to "The Departed."

" 'Shutter Island' took a great deal out of me," Scorsese says. "This was a form of interest and a really good sense of ignorance -- not knowing what you're getting into. I know the level is deep, and I know at some point there's going to be conflicts between the projects. But this is a labor of love, it's not something that has that kind of a deadline."

So Scorsese spent weekends and margins looking at footage and cuts of the Harrison work, and doing research. "Even though it's complex and it's hard to do, in a very complicated way it frees me from the strictures of the feature and makes me think -- I hope -- a little more clearly about the feature," Scorsese says of the process. "Because there's something in these films that had a narrative freedom to them, and it's something that the features may be going this way, and the nonfiction films are going this way, and somehow you hope they interweave."

But at this point, Scorsese says that they are moving toward a 2011 release date and nearly have finished a final cut of the second of three parts of the movie.

Olivia and Scorsese acknowledge that their film will feature never-before-seen footage and personal recordings of Harrison's, as he saved everything and left a ton of material. Scorsese says that all of that personal music led the way to the nonchronological exploration they wanted to take.

"Ultimately, we're trying to have the development of his own music tell the story, if we can," he says. "And the images that he shot, that [Olivia] shot, a lot of this is telling the story. There are some famous bits and some very interesting new material."

Olivia adds: "I think it's not only about George Harrison, but about how a person moves through life and deals with his own life. And it was a pretty intense life for a young person."

In addition to his achievements as a master filmmaker and preservationist, Scorsese has now made a number of films -- "Shine a Light," "Last Waltz," "No Direction Home," "The Blues" (he was even an editor on the "Woodstock" concert film) -- that he is personally building a library of the history of rock.

"We certainly haven't done it intentionally," Scorsese says. "We never really intended to make a chronicle of rock music. But the music inspires so much of what I do with my fiction films that they both seem to be blending now. They seem to be interweaving."

Bonus treats from 1966?! How cool is that!

I would like to thank Olivia for graciously sharing these treasures.

Wow.

I believe it would be good to combine some topics related to this documentary to one topic and keep it as a sticky for further news coming in about it.

Thanks to all who posted about it.

Beatle mania is far from over. With the recent John Lennon biopic Nowhere Boy released last year, George Harrison was next in line. Oscar winning director Martin Scorsese pulled double duty, filming both Living in the Material World: George Harrison and Shutter Island at the same time. Now, according to Variety, Scorsese and George’s widow Olivia Harrison are helping promote the film as Exclusive, which holds worldwide distribution rights, is shopping the film at Cannes.


Scorsese has delved into rock docs in the past, and this particular one struck a personal chord with the director as he relates to the late George Harrison. Harrison gave Scorsese exclusive access to the musician’s materials, some of which have never been seen by the public. For more on the documentary, and Scorsese’s own rock ‘n’ roll history, hit the jump.

The director related to the musician’s spiritual journey, which he found fascinating, and the search for a balance between the spiritual and the physical helped lead to the title of the doc.

The film will reveal notes, cassette tapes, and photos, including never released footage of the guitarist’s life, covering his days with the Beatles to his death in 2001. Additionally, we will hear from some of the songwriter’s closest friends, including Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Eric Clapton, Eric Idle, Tom Petty, Yoko Ono, and Phil Spector.

http://www.collider.com/2010/05/15/m...hopped-around/

Harrison's Spiritual Journey Captured By Martin Scorsese

http://living.oneindia.in/insync/201...sm-180510.html

American Film Director, Martin Scorsese's new focus is on Beatles star George Harrison’s dedication to Hinduism. Based on this is his upcoming documentary, named 'Living in the Material World.'
Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, said that with Scorsese’s expertise in cinematic art and his interest in spirituality, he hopes that the documentary would depict authentic Hinduism.


Zed, who is the President of Universal Society of Hinduism, however urged Scorsese to accurately show concepts of Hinduism and beliefs in the documentary. He also expressed his willingness to help the director with issues related to Hinduism.
\
The shooting of the documentary has been completed and the documentary is being edited by David Tedeschi. Aiming to release it in 2011, it includes interviews with Ringo Starr, Paul McCartney, Phil Spector, Tom Petty, Yoko Ono, Eric Idle and Eric Clapton. It also covers footage of Harrison’s life. Scorsese reportedly found Harrison’s spiritual journey extremely fascinating.

Originally Posted by FPSHOT

Film also uses never-before-seen footage in tracing the guitarist and songwriter's life, from his days with the Beatles until his death in 2001. It includes interviews with those closest to him, including Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Eric Clapton, Eric Idle, Tom Petty, Yoko Ono and Phil Spector.
Harrison wrote and released songs until his death. One note his widow found: "Goats on a roof."


Project reteams Scorsese, Sinclair and exec producer Margaret Bodde, who worked together on "No Direction Home."

I read this and thought...ummm, goats on a roof?

Originally Posted by I am the Paulrus

"This is a deeply personal journey for me, it's been excruciating," she says. "I've been archiving for five years -- 35 years, really. Throwing cassettes and letters in drawers, little things and pieces of paper that you find that say, 'Goats on my roof.' You think, What does that mean?"

I know how Olivia felt, that's how I felt in reading the above article!


This book came out in 2003, but maybe George knew about it before? Or maybe it was self published before?

http://www.flipkart.com/book/there-g...ler/1592861792

There is also a store in Georgia called "Goats on THE Roof." They sell some very silly shirts! PUNS!