Tracing the story of Ella Fitzgerald’s life, this documentary explores how her music became a soundtrack for a tumultuous century. From a 1934 talent contest at the Apollo Theater in Harlem, the film follows Ella’s extraordinary journey across five decades as she reflects the passions and troubles of the times in her music and her life.
Moving beyond conventional biopic, the film uses images and music to evoke the feel of those times so as to bring to life the context of Ella’s unique career, featuring interviews from Smokey Robinson, Jamie Cullum, Tony Bennett and Norma Miller, among others.