“I’m over the moon that this special documentary has found such a perfect home with Sony Pictures Classics,” said Carlile, who is an executive producer as well as a subject of the film, in a statement. “I don’t think there’s a more fascinating human being on the planet than Tanya Tucker. I can’t wait for the world to fall In love with this legend all over again.”
Sony Classics said the film represents “the birth of a major filmmaker in Kathlyn Horan,” the doc’s director and producer. Horan had worked with Carlile on some shorter-form projects previously, including the 2018 documentary short “Brandi Carlile at Washington Correctional Center for Women” and a music video from that same year, “Hold Out Your Hand.” Prior to that, she had done a feature documentary on one of Carlile’s favorite artists, the Indigo Girls, in 2015.
Horan’s non-music documentary credits include “The IF Project,” focused on how a Seattle police officer developed a writing project for inmates at a maximum-security women’s prison. The Tucker/Carlile doc focuses largely on the week-long making of Tucker’s comeback album, “While I’m Livin’,” in L.A. in early 2019. Carlile and Scooter Jennings served as producers on the album, with Carlile and band members Phil and Tim Hanseroth writing most of the material based on their understanding of Tucker’s life. The back half of the film portrays Tucker’s return to the road and her ultimate twin wins at the 2020 Grammys.
Horan’s TinFish Films produced along with Motto Pictures’ Julie Goldman, Christopher Clements and Carolyn Hepburn, the team behind another recent music doc, Todd Haynes’ “The Velvet Underground,” in association with Impact Partners and Artemis Rising. Said Horan, “I am honored to be part of the Sony Pictures Classics family. I’ve always admired the caliber of their films.