The World According To Allee Willis

What joy! What reassurance! 

From the very beginning of this documentary, I was hooked and by God was it brilliant! THE WOMAN, THE ARTIST, Allee Willis what a gift you are!

The documentary roars with the help of an expertly designed multimedial cinematography and sound design to evoke Allee Willis’ spirit with every frame, with every note!

If you've never heard of her, you will intuitively understand what she stood for, within the first 4 min. (I checked the timecode) You come to realize how astute, self aware and overall aware of the magnitude of everything around her she was, as well as the role she played in all of it. Astounding!

Another thing this documentary does exceptionally well, is highlighting the impact Black culture and especially Black female artists had on Willis’ career, Patti LaBelle being the first one to perform one of her songs, respectively. As Allee herself stated, Motown changed her life. 

The documentary operates by offering the audience a look at an imprint of Willis, which consists of her friends’ and loved ones’ perspective of her, interspersed with archival content as well as a tour of her proudly self-designed house in the San Fernando Valley.

Allee Willis is a testament to what can be created when the artist listens to the siren call only they can hear. Although she was deeply scarred at the end of her life’s journey, her work stands on its own feet, proud and tall. This documentary truly highlights the artist’s spirit fighting for its existence, most poignantly with the words by fellow composer and friend Andrae Alexander: ”She always wanted to document her life in such a way that it invited other people in, to know their own brilliance and creativity.”

“The World According To Allee Willis” achieves just that.