Spazju Kreattiv is showing a documentary on US jazz and swing singer Billie Holiday (1915-1959), one of the greatest voices of all time who was also a figure of controversy – a black woman in a white man’s world, a pioneer and a rebel whose iconic protest song Strange Fruit earned her powerful enemies.

In the late 1960s, journalist Linda Lipnack Kuehl set out to write the definitive biography of Holiday’s life.

Over the next decade, she tracked down and tape-recorded interviews with those who knew Holiday best.

These include musical greats like Charles Mingus, Tony Bennett, Sylvia Syms and Count Basie and Holiday’s cousin, school friends, lovers, lawyers, pimps and even the FBI agents who arrested her.

But Kuehl’s book was never finished and the tapes unheard – until this documentary was released last year.

Billie, directed by James Erskine, is showing at the Spazju Kreattiv Cinema today at 6pm, on January 22 at 8.30pm and on January 27 at 7.30pm. For tickets, visit www.kreattivita.org.

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