NEW YORK, NY.- Film Forum will present the US theatrical premiere of Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice, from Academy Award®-winning directors Rob Epstein & Jeffrey Friedman, beginning Friday, September 6. Since bursting onto the music scene in 1967, Linda Ronstadt has been an icon for more than 50 years. Her extraordinary vocal range and ambition created unforgettable songs across rock, pop, country, folk ballads, American standards, classic Mexican music, and soul. As the most popular female recording artist of the 1970s – with songs like You’re No Good, When Will I Be Loved, and Blue Bayou – Ronstadt filled huge arenas and produced an astounding eleven Platinum albums. Ronstadt was the first artist to top the Pop, Country, and R&B charts simultaneously; she won 10 Grammy® Awards and received 26 nominations.
In Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice, Ronstadt is our guide through her early years of singing Mexican canciones with her family, her folk days with the Stone Poneys, and her reign as the “rock queen” of the ‘70s and early ’80s. She was a pioneer for women in the male-dominated music industry and a passionate advocate for human rights. The press loved her high-profile romance with California Governor Jerry Brown. Ultimately, her incredible voice was lost to Parkinson’s disease, but her music and influence remain as timeless as ever. With moving performance footage and appearances by collaborators Dolly Parton, Emmylou Harris, Bonnie Raitt, Jackson Browne, and others, the film celebrates an artist whose desire to share the music she loved made generations of fans fall in love with her — and the sound of her voice.
Epstein and Friedman are the directors of COMMON THREADS: STORIES FROM THE QUILT (1989), THE CELLULOID CLOSET (1996), HOWL (2010), and PARAGRAPH 175, which Film Forum opened in 2000, alongside a restoration of Epstein’s THE TIMES OF HARVEY MILK (1984).
Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice will open Friday, September 6 for an ongoing engagement at Film Forum, 209 West Houston Street (west of 6th Avenue), with screenings daily at 12:30, 2:30, 4:40, 7:00 & 9:15.
“Tells the enthralling story of one of the most powerful women in the history of pop music…who never looked back, never apologized, never compromised, virtually never made a wrong move, and made it all seem effortless. Linda Ronstadt had a voice so majestic that…it soared above everything around it. It was a voice as clear as a bell, as charged as an engine, and one that expressed so much, a voice that could love, fight, caress, declare, cajole, wound, and heal. A voice that turned power into splendor.” – Owen Gleiberman, Variety
“Resplendent with archival material. Beautiful but bittersweet: it captures Ronstadt’s spirit and essence in a manner that feels overdue and essential.” – Allison Hussey, Billboard
Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice (2019, 95 mins.) Directed by Rob Epstein & Jeffrey Friedman. Produced by James Keach, Michele Farinola, Epstein & Friedman. Directors of Photography: Nancy Schreiber & Ian Coad. Edited by Jake Pushinsky & Heidi Scharfe. Original score composed by Julian Raymond & Bennett Salvay. USA. Released by Greenwich Entertainment, 1091, and CNN Films.
