今日吃瓜

The first trailer for the documentary about about stage and screen darling Liza Minelli, Liza: A Truly Terrific Absolutely True Story has dropped, and it only took 40 seconds to make me cry.

Directed by Bruce David Klein, Liza debuted at the 2024 Tribeca Festival, and was also screened at the Hamptons Film Festival, the Provincetown Film Festival and the NewFest LGBTQ+ Film Festival, to enormous acclaim.

The film is an intimate portrait of Minelli in the 1970’s, and lets audiences in on a turbulent time in Liza’s life- her mother had just died, she was winning awards for her first few film appearances, she was in the throws of a drug addiction, and her first marriage was crumbling.

Klein’s documentary also shows never-before-seen footage of Minnelli during her 1970s European tour.

鈥淎s soon as we pressed play on the first reel of footage, we were blown away,鈥� Klein said to . 鈥淩ight in front of us was this beautiful, vulnerable superstar of stage and screen at the height of her powers. She was literally the 鈥榠t鈥� girl of the world at that time. Even the personal scenes of her just hanging out were fascinating and revealing. Our team really got a feel for who she was and what drove her.鈥�

Minelli, now 78, is involved in the documentary, as are a long list of her friends and family inlcuding Fred Ebb, Halston, Bob Fosse, Michael Feinstein, Mia Farrow, Ben Vereen, Joel Grey, her sister Lorna Luft, and the late Chita Rivera.

鈥淗ow lucky am I,” present day Liza addresses the camera at the end of the trailer, “to have gone though all of the bad stuff that I have gone through because it prepared me for the rest of my life.鈥�

A staunch gay ally like her mother before her (need I remind you Judy Garland’s funeral was part of the catalyst for the 1969 Stonewall Riots?), Liza’s iconic glitzy persona and style cemented her in the hearts queers everywhere, but it was her lifelong dedication to LGBTQIA+ rights, especially the work she did around HIV/AIDS, a disease she lost many friends to.