A new documentary exploring the life of iconic American jazz singer Billie Holiday is in the works.

The film, which will feature a series of never-before-heard interviews with her contemporaries, will be directed by James Erskine and will be funded by Concord, the successor to the Billie Holiday estate.

According to a press release, the biopic will focus on Holiday’s life through the eyes of fan and literary journalist Linda Lipnack Kuehl. Journalist Kuehl began her biography of Holiday in 1970 and secured recorded interview interviews with the likes of Charles Mingus, Sarah Vaughan, Holiday’s step-parents, lovers and even the FBI who eventually arrested her.

“We are thrilled to be working with the creative team of James Erskine and New Black Films who have taken great care to produce a documentary that honours the life and work of Billie Holiday in an exciting, genre-defying way,” Sophia Dilley, Vice President of film and TV development and production for Concord, said in a statement.

Billie Holiday died in Metropolitan Hospital, New York, on Friday, July 17, 1959, in the bed in which she had been arrested for illegal possession of narcotics a little more than a month before. The film is expected to follow all the ups and downs of her life.



