Director/Producer Francis Whately of HBO's DAVID BOWIE: THE LAST FIVE YEARS

The Total Tutor Neil Haley will interview Director/Producer Francis Whately of HBO's DAVID BOWIE: THE LAST FIVE YEARS.

In January 2016, David Bowie died at the age of 69, just days after he released the critically acclaimed Blackstar, a haunting album that explored questions of mortality. With intimate access to Bowie’s friends and artistic collaborators, and a wealth of rare archival material, Francis Whately’s insightful film examines the celebrated artist’s remarkably creative final years, through the production of both Blackstar and its predecessor, The Next Day, as well as his stage musical, Lazarus.

FEATURING | David Bowie, Tony Visconti, Ivo Van Hove, Toni Basil, Earl Slick, Gail Ann Dorsey, Gerry Leonard, Carlos Alomar, Catherine Russel, Sterling Campbell, Zachary Alford, David Torn, Enda Walsh, Donny McCaslin, Maria Schneider, Robert Fox

Francis has been making films with the BBC for the last twenty years. He has worked on a wide variety of acclaimed films including documentaries on Mark Rothko and Jackson Pollock; a fashion film with the supermodel Kate Moss; A film with HRH the Duke of Edinburgh, to celebrate his 90th birthday and a hard hitting current affairs film on the state of women’s rights around the world, with Hillary Clinton, Madeleine Albright and Condoleezza Rice.  Recently he made a tribute to British National treasure Dame Judi Dench, with Daniel Craig, Sir Ian McKellan and Piers Brosnan.

His latest film is a feature length documentary entitled 'The Sidemen'. It discusses the role of some of the greatest unknown musicians who back stars like the Rolling Stones, Billy Joel, Prince, Otis Redding and David Bowie. It was released in July 2017.