UK documentary director Kim Longinotto is self-financing and shooting a feature about singer and reality star Dalton Harris
The film has the working title Dalton’s Dream and follows the Jamaican-British singer who won the UK edition of The X Factor in 2018.
Longinotto revealed details of the new project to Screen ahead of IDFA, which will screen her latest documentary, Shooting The Mafia, which debuted at Sundance.
The director describes Dalton’s Dream as an “antidote” to films like Amy, Whitney and Kurt & Courtney, which “celebrate people after they’re dead.”
“We want to know why all these people are destroyed by the industry,” said the filmmaker. “They’re all vulnerable people and their vulnerability is what attracts us to them.”
But rather than “celebrate people who crash and burn” and who are “victims,” her film about Harris is intended as a portrait of a star at the beginning of his career.
“He is a wonderful person, he has the most beautiful voice and I really hope he survives,” said Longinotto, who spotted the star while watching the reality show.
“It was love at first sight. I thought, I really love this person and I want to make a film with them about what is going to happen next. If there is any justice in the world, he will succeed.”
Longinotto is also producing the feature and shooting guerrilla style, without outside funding.
Harris is happy to be followed by the camera. “He is a free spirit and wants a witness to this journey,” said the director. “It will be a great thing for him to have in 30 or 40 years’ time, to have this really precious part of his life [documented].”
The director has followed the singer back to home in Jamaica to film him there. Longinotto added: “What Dalton has done is taken us into his life, trusted us and taken us on this journey with him.”
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