When singer-songwriter Jon Batiste set out to make what he now calls a “boring process documentary” about composing a symphony, he and director Matthew Heineman couldn’t have predicted what would follow:
“He said, ‘You know what? I'd love to work on that with you.’ And within a month of us deciding to work on the film together, he starts filming, we don't have any backers, I get nominated for 11 Grammys the same week that I find out my wife's leukemia returns,” the musician shares.
Batiste explains why he stuck with making American Symphony, even after his wife, writer Suleika Jaouad, was diagnosed and hospitalized. The couple allowed Heineman to keep the cameras rolling, pretty much around the clock. The film wound up premiering at Telluride and winning the backing of Netflix and the Obamas.