Brigitte Berman’s documentary ‘Artie Shaw: Time Is All You’ve Got’ won an Oscar for Best Documentary Feature Film in 1986 but has not been screened since 1987. It will be shown in a newly restored version – in fact it will have its European premiere, plus a Q and A with the director – in London on 11 March 2025 at 7 pm as part of the “Women’s Voices: a Celebration” Festival at the Playground Theatre. A Blu-ray version is out later in the year. Brigitte Berman explains the background to Sebastian.
UK Jazz News: What originally drew you to make a film about Artie Shaw?
Brigitte Berman: I had interviewed Artie Shaw for my documentary on Bix Beiderbecke and we ended up having a very long conversation, as you always do with Mr. Shaw. Even though I had filmed such a long interview with him, I ended up using less than a minute of that interview in the BIX film.
Watching that extraordinary interview and seeing what a charismatic personality Shaw was, and how he had led such an extraordinary and complex life, I decided that I wanted my next feature documentary to be about him. But I knew that he would first need to see my work and be convinced that I was indeed a good filmmaker. That’s why I invited him to a private screening of my BIX film in Los Angeles, after the film was invited to screen at Filmex, the then Los Angeles International Film Festival. The private screening took place just a few days prior to the Festival screenings.
UKJN: And why did he accept to let you make it?
BB: After seeing the BIX film, which he really loved, he took me out for lunch and over lunch he asked me what I would be doing next. And I replied: “I’d like to make a film about you Mr.Shaw.” I knew that he would ask me why I wanted to make a film about him and I replied that he was a perfect bookend for my BIX film. Bix Beiderbecke was the artist who could never say “no” to anybody, which is part of the reason why he died so young. Fans would drag him off to speakeasies and ask him to play and he would play and drink late into the night and early morning.
To quote Louis Armstrong: “…he [Bix] never could say ’no’, and that’s what hurt him…they killed the goose that laid the golden egg.” And yet Bix was a wonderful wonderful cornetist – his playing came right out of his heart and his soul. By comparison, Artie Shaw was the direct opposite of Bix – he said “no” countless times – to his bands, his wives, to the music business. Artie Shaw was also a great artist, but he was a survivor, never afraid to say “no” to anyone.
Shaw liked what I told him and agreed that I could make a film about him. I was overjoyed! The process of making this film took 3 1/2 years. The first time I showed Shaw the finished film was in New York City with his then girlfriend, and Artie Shaw loved the film.
In one of the newspaper interviews when Shaw was asked by LA Daily News journalist Kirk Honeycutt about Shaw’s response to the film after seeing it for the second time at Filmex – as the Los Angeles International Film Festival was called at that time, Shaw remarked: “The first time was overwhelming. It’s strange to see yourself through someone else’s eye. But the film has the merit of truth.” Indeed, he loved the film again the second time that he saw it, and he praised it to the press and to the audience.
However, after I returned to Toronto, several days following the Filmex screenings, I started to get calls from Artie Shaw saying that I needed to make some changes to the film. Lose your narration, he said, he no longer liked the fact that it was a woman narrating the film. You can understand that, can’t you, he asked me, it sounds too whimsical. Then Shaw wanted me to cut out his listening to the recording of the tune called “Summertime” – no one wants to watch me sitting there like a lump on a log, listening to my own music. Get rid of it. Then Artie Shaw wanted me to shorten the footage of Helen Forrest singing “I have Eyes To See With”. He grumbled that I showed her on camera singing the song for far too long. No one really wants to watch the singer in a jazz orchestra, he told me, and he insisted that I shorten that sequence. Every time Shaw came up with a new change, I gently tried to tell him that it was too late, the film was completed. Eventually we would have long arguments over the phone that always ended the same way, with me insisting that his demands were unreasonable, that he had already publicly stated that the film spoke to the truth about him, and with Artie Shaw hanging up, angry that I would not do what he asked me to do.
When the film was nominated for an Academy Award, all his demands for changes suddenly stopped. Once again Artie Shaw was happy with the film.
UKJN: What happened? Why were screenings of the film stopped?
BB: After my film won the Academy Award in March 1987, that’s when Artie Shaw decided that the film had become a commodity and that therefore he should own the controlling interest in the film. I was shocked when I received his phone call one afternoon, a few days after the Academy Awards. Single-handedly I had raised all the money to make the film myself, and instead of buying a house with the earnings I made as a producer with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, I had made a feature-length documentary. Also, he insisted that I did not have his co-operation to be making the film. Of course that was not true, I did have a personal letter from Mr. Shaw in which he clearly gave me his permission.
Even though Shaw had never before even mentioned wanting a percentage of the film, he now demanded a controlling interest. My lawyer and I agreed to offer him a percentage of the film – but it was not enough. He loved the film, it had won the big award, and now he decided that he wanted to “own” and thus be able to control the film. Of course, I could not hand the film over to him and so I had no choice but to say “no” to Mr. Shaw. This led to his law suit that lasted for almost fifteen years. And during that entire time the film was not available. Nor did I want to watch the film or bring it into distribution during that time, as well as for a number of years afterwards.
It was all too painful.
UKJN: That sounds like a lot of strain…
BB: It was a horrific strain. When I said ‘no’ to Artie Shaw after he wanted a controlling interest, that was a very very difficult and scary thing for me to do. I felt like David up against Goliath. Thankfully I had obtained a hand-written letter from Artie Shaw on his personal letterhead, in which he stated that I had his permission to make this documentary about himself, and that letter became the major exhibit during the trial in Toronto. Artie Shaw was very surprised to hear of the letter’s existence, he did not remember it, but he had to admit that yes, it was a letter in his own handwriting, and it became the major exhibit during the trial. I can never thank Polly Haynes, one of the interviewees in the film enough for warning me about Artie Shaw after I had interviewed her for the film – make sure that you have everything in writing. Her words were very wise indeed and I’m glad I took her words to heart.
Eventually the trial took place in Toronto, Canada, and it lasted for one week. At the end of that week in court, Artie Shaw walked over to my lawyer, Doug Turner, shook his hand and said: “Next time, I’m going to hire you!”
Three months later, we learned the results – that Artie Shaw had indeed lost his law suit.
He then took his suit to the Ontario Supreme Court where the case was dismissed within five minutes. Shaw then sued me from California, in federal court in Los Angeles. Eventually, almost fifteen years after the nightmare had initially begun, Shaw lost that lawsuit as well. Over the 15 years, Shaw used every opportunity available to him to delay and complicate the proceedings and to add to my legal expenses. One of the things that Artie Shaw would engage in after he quit playing the clarinet, was various lawsuits with a dozen different companies or people at the same time, often just for the “fun of it”. To Shaw suing someone was a sport, like ‘going fishing’. It was a nightmare for me.
UKJN: What will be different about the new version?
BB: I’m now thrilled that I decided to restore the Artie Shaw film. I had to do it – the film is part of history – as is the Bix Beiderbecke documentary.
In order to create as good a restoration as possible, the lab got the original 16 mm picture out from the Archives, scanned it to 4K and then we did a new colour timing of the film. The film looks spectacular indeed. I also did a few minor edits to make the film a bit sharper in the editing.
And it sounds spectacular as well, because my sound designer, Daniel Pellerin, completely re-mastered the sound track and brought it up to today’s standards.
UKJN: Apart from the London screening, how will people be able to see it?
BB: The film will come out on Blu-ray in the United States and in Canada, and people will be able to purchase the Blu-Ray on line this summer. This London screening will be special screening to give jazz aficionados and jazz enthusiasts in London a chance to see my film on a big screen with an audience. And I will be there and will do a q&a after the film. Hopefully I will be able to make a deal with a European distributor to show the film theatrically in the UK and other European countries and to bring it out on Blu-ray and have it made available in mainland Europe as well.
116 minutes. Starring: Artie Shaw, Polly Haynes, John Wexley, Lee Castle, John Best, Helen Forrest, Buddy Rich, Mel Tormé, Mack Pierce, Frederic Morton, Evelyn Keyes. The Playground Theatre is in Latimer Road London W10
One Response
This documentary, which I recall was excellent, aired on BBC2 on 2nd April 1988. [See https://tvrdb.com/listings/ ] I remember recording it to VCR and rewatching it. Well worth a cinema release!