Despite being a key figure in the music industry since 1971 with the founding of the art-rock band Roxy Music – which is also a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee – and having produced numerous multi-platinum, genre-defining albums, Brian Eno still remains something of an enigma.
It stands to reason, then, that any documentary film covering the entirety of his life and career should be equally enigmatic.
That’s what New York–based film director and photographer Gary Hustwit did with ‘Eno’, his new documentary about the beloved, British-born glam pop avatar, synthesizer player, ambient music innovator, multi-media visual artist, Grammy winner, perfume maker, a capella singing group member and producer of seminal albums from U2, Coldplay, Talking Heads, David Bowie, Talking Heads, Paul Simon and more.
Hustwit will be in attendance on Thursday, Jan. 23, for two ‘Eno’ screenings (7 and 9:30 p.m.) at Philadelphia Film Society. And if you happen to attend both shows, pay strict attention – Hustwit designed ‘Eno’ to never be the same experience twice, just like Brian Eno himself.
For those who really want to confound and amaze themselves, on Jan. 24, there is a 24-hour global, AI-enhanced, generative streaming premiere, where you can witness “multiple unique versions” of ‘Eno’ around the clock.
“The best way to explain it is that each iteration of the film is 100 percent unique, because there are things being created for that iteration that will never occur again,” Hustwit told Deadline. “I just want to be surprised by the movie, like the audience. We’re making digital files now. There’s no film. There’s no celluloid. We’re not carving these things out of marble, so why can’t the digital files just have some capabilities, and do other things?”
Hustwit’s very first documentary gave audiences a clue as to where his head was at when it came to refining and reinventing the form: 2007’s ‘Helvetica’ and its tribute to then-50-year history of the titular typeface. After several additional documentaries dedicated to urban design planning, the New York City-based Hustwit – a forever Eno fan from both a musical and aesthetic standpoint – decided on creating a film as nonlinear and random-loving as his favorite artist. For those who don’t know: 50-years-ago this year, Brian Eno co-created a deck of cards, ‘Oblique Strategies’ (subtitled ‘Over One Hundred Worthwhile Dilemmas’) designed to promote creativity by throwing chance into each artistic collaboration.
Because Brian Eno didn’t truly wish to be directly involved in a documentary on himself, Hustwit and his team set about utilizing a couture software program (Brain One, an anagram of “Brian Eno”) and generative tech that continues to choose footage, then edits and screens the ‘Eno’ film differently each time. Culled from 30 hours of interviews and 500 hours of Eno-delivered archival footage, your ‘Eno’ experience at 7 p.m. is not the same as my ‘Eno’ at 9:30 p.m., and will never be, once we get into the 24-hour ‘Eno’ livestream the next day.
In fact, there’s no way to be certain of which ‘Eno’ doc anyone can recommend with its 52 quintillion possibilities of what’s seen by each audience. And what could be more “Eno” than that?
More information and tickets are available online.
