Celebrated Singer-Songwriter Laura Nyro to Get Her Own Documentary
A documentary about Rock and Roll Hall of Fame-inducted singer-songwriter Laura Nyro is in the works.
Nyro’s son Gil Bianchini will serve as an associate producer on the still-untitled film, which will begin production later this year, Deadline reports.
A music legend and feminist icon who emerged out of the late-Sixties, Nyro was both an renowned singer and accomplished songwriter. Her tracks became hits for artists like Barbra Streisand and Blood, Sweat & Tears, but her career was cut short when she died in 1997 at the age of 49 after a battle with breast cancer. She was posthumously inducted into the Rock Hall in 2012.
Among the producers on the Nyro doc are Ben Weisbren and Bonnie Greenberg, along with Vistas Media Capital. “I was first attracted to Laura Nyro’s music and life story by what David Geffen so poignantly said about her in Susan Lacy’s 2010 feature film Inventing David Geffen,” Waisbren said in a statement (Nyro was Geffen’s first client back when he was a music manager). “Her lyrics touched and galvanized a generation of women — words that have resonance today.”
The documentary is based in part on the 2003 book Soul Picnic: The Music and Passion of Laura Nyro by Michele Kort. Additionally, producers hope to recruit contemporary artists inspired by Nyro to perform her songs for the film.
“We are proud to make a documentary that illuminates such an important and respected artist who has a passionate following throughout the world,” Vistas Media Capital CEO Abhayanand Singh said in a statement. “There is a universality to Laura’s persona that appeals to audiences no matter where they live, and this is precisely what we are attracted to as producers and distributors–material that can really travel and be embraced globally.”