GREAT BARRINGTON, Mass. — The Triplex Cinema announced a special screening on Saturday, Aug. 17, of "Dory Previn: On My Way to Where," which celebrates the life of the late Berkshires singer/songwriter, followed by a talkback with co-director Julia Greenberg, and animator Emily Hubley.
The film, which recently premiered at the SXSW Film and TV Festival, uses archival footage together with animation to illustrate the complicated and creative life and work of Dory Previn. Tickets are available at the Triplex website. The screening takes place on Aug. 17 at 4 pm.
According to a press release:
Born in New Jersey in 1923, Previn began a career as a chorus-line dancer as a teenager. In the late 1950's she was discovered famed MGM film producer Arthur Freed, and began working as a lyricist at the Studio, where she was teamed up with wunderkind composer Andre Previn. Soon after she recorded her first jazz album "The Leprechauns Are Upon Me," for Verve Records. Teaming up with Previn, whom she married, they wrote two Oscar nominated songs, "The Faraway Part of Town," sung by Judy Garland in the film "Pepe," and "A Second Chance" for the film "Two for the Seesaw," in 1962. As a duo, the Previn's wrote songs for many of the leading artists of the 1960's including Rosemary Clooney, Vic Damone, Bobby Darin, Sammy Davis, Jr. Leontyne Price, Tony Bennett, among many others.
In 1967 the Previn's music for the hit film "Valley of the Dolls," helped the soundtrack album spend six months on the Billboard charts, and in 1968, writing on her own, Previn had a third Oscar nomination for "Come Saturday Morning" from the Liza Minelli starring film "The Sterile Cuckoo."
Following her breakup with Previn over an affair with actress Mia Farrow, Previn embarked on a solo singer-songwriting career and she released seven critically acclaimed albums in the 1970's including "On My Way to Where," " Mythical Kings and Iguanas" and "Reflections in a Mud Puddle," all in the early 1970's. Throughout the 1970's Previn continued to record music as well as perform publicly, write screenplays and also published two autobiographies. Performing at the same time as her peers Joni Mitchell, Carole King and Laura Nero, Previn did not have the same widespread popularity, because her work dealt brutally honestly with dark and difficult themes which were not accessible to pop radio audiences. Despite this, Previn developed a cult following, in part because of her willingness to write and sing openly about her struggles with mental illness. "On My Way to Where," makes the case that Previn "anticipated a modern-day neurodiversity movement."
In the 1980's Previn's work turned political and working for television, she won an Emmy Award in 1984 for "We'll Win this World," and an Emmy nomination for "Home Here." Continuing to work in a number of areas, including the publication of stage work, short stories, lecture on lyric writing Previn oversaw, in 1995, the publication of "The Dory Previn Songbook." In 1997 she again collaborated with Andre Previn to produce a piece for soprano and ensemble entitled "The Magic Number." The piece was performed by the New York Philharmonic with Andre Previn conducing and Sylvia McNair performing the Soprano part.
Previn left Los Angeles in the early 1980's, and with her husband, actor and artist Toby Baker, moved to the Southfield, Massachusetts in the Berkshires, where she continued to work and was an active part of the creative community until she died on Valentine's Day in 2012.
Considered one of the great American songwriters of her time, Previn's life and work has been lived in the shadow of her famous ex-husband Andre Previn. "Dory Previn: On My Way to Where," looks to put Previn's life and work back to the place it rightly belongs, and tell the story of a pioneering woman and artist ahead of her time who wrote frankly and courageously about her sexuality, women's issues, and her own well-documented mental health issues. "On My Way to Where," is a magical story of perseverance, creativity and love.
Julia Greenberg is a singer, songwriter and now documentarian. Greenberg has written the music for off-Broadway hits "People Are Wrong" and "Cavedweller" and has released two albums of original music . Greenberg interprets the music, and is curating the archives of Dory Previn, driver to share the magic of this under-known genius with the world.
Emily Hulbey is a well-known animator whose work has been featured in the documentary "Blue Vinyl" and the film "Hedwig and the Angry Inch," among many other films. Her first feature film, "The Toe Tactic," premiered at the Museum of Modern Art in 2009 and was released on DVD by Kino International.
