Next month will mark one year since the film premiered to rave reviews at the San Francisco International Film Festival. Some of it is his more popular material but some of it was unreleased and largely unheard before this film. “Heaven Adores You” is really the first comprehensive film about Smith’s life and music especially his music – The 1 hour and 44 minute documentary is packed full of tracks by the prolific singer/songwriter.

Participants in the film include Smith’s sister Ashley, former bandmates and collaborators Jon Brion, Larry Crane, Neil Gust, Tony Lash, Brandt Peterson, Rob Schnapf, Kill Rock Stars’ Slim Moon, and others. The creators of the project took great care and found the people that knew Smith best, conducting over 30 on-screen interviews to help reconstruct Smith’s life for the film. To hear his family and friends describe him and their own unique relationships with him was a pleasant addition to the film. It’s a brutally honest look into the life of this brilliant musician and somewhat complicated human being. This remarkable film was lovingly directed by Nickolas Rossi, and produced by Jeremiah Gurzi, Kevin Moyer and Marc Smolowitz.

But from just a single viewing of “Heaven Adores You”, the Elliott Smith documentary that’s been lighting up film festivals across the world for about a year now, it’s very obvious that the producers and stars of this film had truthful portrayals of the late singer-songwriter in the cards as opposed to false revisionism for a cheap, defaming thrill, showing us the shrillest highs and lowest lows of his professional career in an honest and caring way. When considering the legacy Elliott Smith has accumulated in this day and age as a sadsack guy who wrote sadsack songs, one might expect a documentary about him produced in this day and age to be like 90 minutes of ceaseless malaise and depression not seen since “Dear Zachary”.

Elliott smith either or album cover