This week I decided to destress myself by listening to Nina Simone, and found myself watching Liz Garbus’ 2015 documentary film What Happened, Nina Simone? (2015) after a quick search on Netflix. Throughout the 1hr 42min film, I was learning more and more about a talented woman who was misunderstood her entire life. A classical musical trained woman who played jazz to make a living dreamed to play classical music at Carnegie Hall but instead for forced to play jazz.

Liz successfully portrays a real and raw biography on Nina. She was a woman beyond her time and pioneered the path for women to rise against all the bullshit in the world and revolutionised music and artistry throughout the 20th century. However, through the interviews of all the people who knew her best from her daughter, her former and abusive lover (footage from an interview in the past) and to her lifelong guitarist and friend, Nina was deeply lonely and broken inside. The pain is ever so prominent in her music and watching her performances throughout the documentary breaks your heart a little that such pain can bring out such beauty on stage.

This documentary reflects the trust that Nina’s daughter, Lisa has with Liz on documenting such an influential person to the big screen. Would highly recommend!