Willie Nelson & Family docu-series detailed

Production on Willie Nelson and Family is underway

Blackbird Presents and Sight Unseen are thrilled to announce production is well underway on Willie Nelson and Family, the definitive docu-series on the extraordinary life and career of the iconic Willie Nelson. Emmy Award & Grammy Award-winning filmmaker Thom Zimny and Academy Award-nominated & Emmy Award-winning filmmaker Oren Moverman are co-directors of this multi-part docu-series. Nelson and his family and friends are providing exclusive participation and access to his archives. Filming is underway in the deep-rooted Nelson locales of Austin, Maui, Nashville, Los Angeles and New York.

The project was developed by longtime Nelson manager Mark Rothbaum and Blackbird Presents Founder & Chief Creative Officer Keith Wortman, whom have collaborated on several award-winning film, television and music projects. They identified the celebrated directors of Zimny and Moverman as uniquely suited to direct the series, along with Moverman’s award-winning production company with Julia Lebedev and Eddie Vaisman, Sight Unseen, as a producing and financing partner. Executive Producers are Keith Wortman, Mark Rothbaum, Annie Nelson, Julia Lebedev, Eddie Vaisman and Leonid Lebedev.

“Telling Willie’s story has been a lifelong dream of ours, and we feel privileged to realize this dream with Thom, Oren and Sight Unseen,” states Rothbaum and Wortman.

“Words like ‘honored,’ ‘excited’ and ‘humbled’ don’t come close to describing the way we feel about being entrusted with telling Willie’s story. And what a story it is! We are celebrating the music, the career, the long road, the family, friends and history. But, more than anything, we are piecing together a narrative – one never before seen in its entirety – about an extraordinary man with a unique ability to bring people together; folks of all races, orientations, genders, political ideologies and musical leanings. These days, we sure could use the healing powers of Willie Nelson,” add Zimny and Moverman.

At 88 years old, Nelson is as vibrant, active and dynamic as ever. In the last year alone, he has led major online concert fundraisers for Farm Aid and the Austin Community Foundation. He was the voice of 13 major sports leagues as part of the Ad Council’s national ad campaign on vaccination awareness. He released a No. 1 album of new recordings, That’s Life, where he paid homage to his favorite Frank Sinatra songs, released his latest book Willie Nelson’s Letters to America and performed and was celebrated in a once-in-a- lifetime music special Willie Nelson: American Outlaw on A&E. He is one of the musicians leading the charge to safely get back “on the road again” with the announcement of his full calendar of concert and festival dates in 2021.

Buddy Iahn
Buddy Iahn

Buddy Iahn founded The Music Universe when he decided to juxtapose his love of web design and music. As a lifelong drummer, he decided to take a hiatus from playing music to report it. The website began as a fun project in 2013 to one of the top independent news sites. Email: info@themusicuniverse.com