Vic Chesnutt died in an apparent suicide at the end of 2009, but his memory will at least live on in a forthcoming new documentary, with Michael Stipe backing the project.
The R.E.M. frontman and former Chesnutt collaborator announced late last week that he was attached as executive producer to “It Is What It Is,” a concert doc of one of singer-songwriter last shows on Nov. 21, 2009.
According to the flick’s Facebook site, it’ll be out by year’s end and features members of his backing “supergroup,” including Guy Picciotto (Fugazi), members of Thee Silver Mt. Zion, Godspeed! You Black Emperor, Thierry Amar, Nadio Moss, David Payant, Todd Griffin, Michael O’Brien,and Liz Durret. It was “filmed in a house” and is a plan9films project. A complete set list is up on the site.
Chesnutt was confined to a wheelchair starting in 1983 after a car crash, and many of his dark songs focused on it and the result. He struggled in his final months to make payments to a Georgia hospital for an expensive surgery, and the hospital filed a lawsuit against him. He died in an apparent suicide on Christmas Day in 2009 at the age of 45.
Below is an “unmixed” excerpt from the film, released by the filmmakers’ camp.