A 17-year journey: Peaches and Marie Losier’s cinematic odyssey
The Venice Film Festival this year is set to showcase a unique documentary that has been nearly two decades in the making. The film, titled “Peaches Goes Bananas”, is the brainchild of documentarian Marie Losier and pop icon Merrill Nisker, better known as Peaches. Their collaboration began backstage at a show, where Losier instinctively started filming Peaches with her Bolex camera. This spontaneous decision led to 17 years of continuous filming, culminating in an intimate and unconventional documentary.
A different kind of documentary
“Peaches Goes Bananas” is not your typical documentary. Premiering in the Venice Days sidebar, it offers a fresh perspective on the life and art of Peaches. This project follows another Peaches-focused film, “Teaches of Peaches”, which premiered in Berlin earlier this year. However, Peaches herself sees no overlap between the two films.
“The projects are so different,” says Peaches. “One is more of a documentary of a certain album at a certain place in time, whereas Marie’s film – well, I don’t even consider it a documentary. It’s more of a painting, a portrait. Marie gets excited about an artist and then goes her own way.”
The art of the body
Marie Losier, the director, emphasizes the film’s connection to the body and how it can be an object of art. “The film shows how a body across many stages and many ages can create beauty. And it’s a film where the music is felt physically,” she explains. Losier achieved this by shooting with a hand-held film camera that couldn’t record sound.
“[Shooting with a Bolex] is full of surprises,” says Losier. “You don’t see what you film, so you focus on the moment, while staying very concentrated, and then discover all kinds of surprises when you get the result. It’s a very different way of thinking cinema, full of problems and surprises, which I love.”
Losier believes that separating sound from image can be as important as the image itself. ”You can invent so much more when not filming with synchronized sound. It really opens a universe of creativity.”
Peaches’ creative journey
The film delves into Peaches’ personal archives, shedding new light on her creative approach. Before becoming a Berlin-based icon, Peaches taught music to children in Toronto. She likens this experience to a trial by fire that helped forge her stage presence.
“Audiences want to feel part of the show, to feel like they know something that you don’t,” says Peaches. “They don’t – but the suspension of disbelief is really exciting, and it’s fun to play with that, pretending like you forgot to play [their favorite song]. You have to find a way to interact without them taking over.”
Seeing Peaches sing nursery rhymes to a younger crowd was also a way to “decentralize the coolness of rock music.” Instead, Losier focuses on Peaches’ relationship with her parents and sister, departing from typical Behind the Music conventions to depict deep love and devotion. However, with love comes heartache and loss, a factor made more acute by family illness and the film’s 17-year shoot.
“Returning to the footage so many years later, I saw the powerful way Peaches gazed upon [her sister] Suri, something I hadn’t noticed while in the moment,” says Losier. ”It made the editing process very moving and very emotional because I was so close to it. I needed to orchestrate those emotions to bring the film to life.”
The passage of time
Given the film’s lengthy production, the passage of time emerges as a key theme. Seeing Peaches interact with her parents underscores one of her main concerns: intergenerational discussion and understanding.
“Intergenerational discussion and understanding is most important right now,” she says. “I also think that parents and grandparents can often be more punk than their kids. I mean, they’ve lived through cultural revolutions – they understand the punk attitude!”
As a performing artist, Peaches wants to embody that attitude. “The culture will always have a place for young people to find their icons,” she says. “But those a bit older are now like, I want mine! We want this, we need to feel this way too. So I want to say [aging and menopause] is not the end. It’s the beginning of a new thing – and it’s great. You don’t have to worry about wearing white, for instance.”
A new beginning
“Peaches Goes Bananas” is more than just a documentary; it’s a testament to the enduring power of creativity and the human spirit. It’s a film that challenges conventional narratives and offers a fresh perspective on aging, art, and the passage of time. For those interested in exploring this unique cinematic journey, you can watch the trailer for Peaches Goes Bananas.
Marie Losier and Peaches have created a film that is as much about the process of making art as it is about the art itself. It’s a celebration of life, love, and the endless possibilities that come with embracing the unknown.