Taken By Storm - Hipgnosis/Thorgerson film premiere soon
Written by Matt   
Friday, 18 February 2011

Taken By Storm filmLast June we told you about Taken By Storm, an indepth film about Thorgerson's life and work as told through his own reflection, his personal archive of never-before seen photographs and films, ex-partner of Hipgnosis Aubrey Powell, and through first hand narratives from some of the most important musicians of our time.

Roddy Bogawa, the man behind the film, is putting the finishing touches to it, and it is premiering on the opening night (March 11th, at 9pm) of the prestigeous SXSW festival in Austin, Texas, USA (see trailer below). It's the first of four screenings at the festival, and Storm himself will be there for most of it. Roddy tells us that "this will be the first time [that Storm will] see the completed film, which does have some really hilarious moments so it'll be interesting to see his reaction (and certainly how he'll respond to all the questions during the Q and A afterwards)".

Roddy explained that "it's really a film about Storm's creative processes from the Hipgnosis days until now and his relationships/friendships with all the musicians and bands he's worked with through his four decades of making album art. There are interviews with David Gilmour and Nick Mason, as well as Robert Plant, Peter Gabriel, Graham Gouldman, Alan Parsons [and others], as well as Storm's many collaborators, assistants, etc. including photographers Tony May and Rupert Truman, Jill Furmanovsky, and artists Damien Hirst and Sir Peter Blake. The film goes beyond talking about Storm's relationships and creative processes in visualizing music; it is also about how technology has changed our lives, especially the digital realm in music and also the disappearance of vinyl and other physical objects".

He noted that it explores numerous covers and their creation and there's a lot of material from Storm's archives that has never been seen before. "Pink Floyd have given me some footage of a helicopter fly-by shot over the beds on the beach for Momentary Lapse of Reason as well as Paul McCartney's permission to use footage of Storm directing the Band on the Run cover shoot".

Currently the SXSW festival is the only place with scheduled screenings but thankfully it'll get screenings all over soon including the UK. More details as we have them. Check out the following trailer, which is also at the SXSW page for this film: