Charli XCX is releasing a documentary film called “6ft Apart,” based on the recording of her quarantine album, “How I’m Feeling Now,” which was released in May. The album, the first to be made in quarantine by a major artist. The prolific performer, songwriter and producer first announced the album on April 6th, giving herself a hard deadline of May 15th. “It’ll be very DIY — I’ll make it from scratch, very indicative of the times we’re in,” she said during a Zoom session with fans — and sure enough, advance streams of the album arrived on the 14th.
“It felt only natural to document myself making this album,” Charli says of the film. “I don’t think I’ve ever made music in such a unique situation: being so logistically far apart from my collaborators, but going through exactly the same thing, writing songs about my relationship with my boyfriend sitting in the next room, and being so connected to my fans in such an intense and creative way, it felt quite overwhelming and heartwarming all at the same time. So I wanted to film it all.
“Why not add to the pressure of making an extremely personal album within a five-week timeline by putting a load of cameras in my face and zooming in on my personality and insecurities too??! You know???”
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The film, produced by Charli with Snoot Entertainment and Dangerous Baby Productions, currently is in post-production, and marks the feature-length directorial debut from veteran music video directors Bradley&Pablo (Harry Styles, Rosalia, Lil Nas X). It currently has no release date.
The film is produced by Ross Levine (“You Cannot Kill David Arquette,” “Neon”), Emmie Lichtenberg (“I’m With the Band: Nasty Cherry,” Netflix), and Brian Ferenchik.
Keith Calder and Jess Wu Calder are executive producers for Snoot Entertainment (“Blindspotting,” “Anomalisa”) along with Sam Pringle and Twiggy Rowley.
The official announcement of the project reads in part:
The project would be a virtual experiment like no other, with Charli making use of all the tools at her disposal – collaborating online with select artists and her fans around the world via social media. No fancy recording studios. No glossy music videos; everything is made at home, and yet everything is made with the world watching. ‘6ft Apart’ depicts how this project would become a cathartic lifeline for both Charli and her fans, called the ‘Angels’, and a welcome distraction for the wider music world. At the very heart of ‘6ft Apart,’ we uncover the profound power of music to inspire hope, bringing people together in a time where we are forced to be apart; from Charli’s own relationship with her long-distance-now-live-in boyfriend, to a generation around the world in times of global crisis.
