‘David Bowie Is’ Doc To Open In U.S. Theaters, Same Time As MCA Chicago Exhibit Debut

David Bowie continues to bring in ticket-buying audiences, even though he hasn’t performed a solo show in more than a decade. For more than a year and a half, crowds have turned out to see what lurked in Bowie’s closet – formally, the David Bowie archives – during his several decades as a music icon. Last year, London’s Victoria and Albert museum staged the highly-successful David Bowie Is exhibition, featuring costumes, long-lost performance pieces, handwritten lyrics, personal artifacts, and even a crumpled tissue with the preserved residue of Ziggy Stardust-era lipstick.

Since its wildly successful London run, the V&A show has visited other global cities and is set to open at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, the first U.S. stop, on September 23. That same day, the V&A-produced documentary of the exhibition will enjoy a limited run in more than 100 U.S. theaters. The documentary tours the exhibition and offers insight on Bowie from V&A curators Victoria Broackes and Geoffrey Marsh. Special guests such as Jarvis Cocker and Kansai Yamamoto also make appearances.

Watch a preview of the documentary below:

Michael Darling, the MCA curator, spoke highly of the documentary. As Music Times quotes:

“This documentary brings to life how David Bowie embraced creativity from a variety of fields including performance art, music, dance, theater, and the visual arts, and fostered collaborations with artists of all kinds throughout his life. We are fortunate to have this film’s debut coinciding with the MCA’s opening of this extraordinary exhibition.”

Bowie released his first new music in more than a decade without warning last year, just a few months prior to the opening of the V&A exhibit. Bowie nonetheless declined to promote the album and made no public appearances. Last month, the Irish Independent profiled Bowie’s wife Iman Abdulmajid. At the suggestion that these days Iman works – running her multi-million dollar cosmetics company – and Bowie stays at home, reflecting a gender role reversal, Iman balked at the suggestion:

“Are you kidding me? He makes far more money than I do. What role reversal? I don’t know why people think he’s not doing anything. He’s making his money work for him. That’s what he’s doing.”

As for what Bowie is best known for, making music, he seemed to promise additional new music through a note he sent to a recent charity event in London.

The David Bowie Is museum exhibition will run at the MCA Chicago until January 4, 2015.

[Image: David Bowie Is/V&A]