Macdonald’s “Marley” set for SXSW

January 13, 2012 by Adam Benzine

South By Southwest (SXSW) 2012

Kevin Macdonald’s anticipated reggae doc Marley is to receive its North American premiere at the South By Southwest (SXSW) festival in Austin, Texas in March.

The film, which examines the life and times of reggae legend Bob Marley, is billed as having been made with the support of the artist’s family, and promises to be “the definitive life story” of the musician, featuring “rare footage, incredible performances and revelatory interviews with the people that knew him best.”

As previously reported, the doc will get its world premiere a month earlier in Berlin. It has seen three different helmers take the director’s chair over the course of its history, with Martin Scorsese first billed to work on the project, then Jonathan Demme, and now Macdonald – who won an Oscar for his 1999 doc One Day In September.

Marley is one of the first seven films named for this year’s Austin event, and the only documentary announced so far. On the conference side of the event, SXSW has also unveiled a number of panel sessions slated for this year’s event.

Among them, the “A to Z of Doc Distribution with an Emphasis on ‘E’ for Education” panel is being organized by Kino Lorber’s Elizabeth Sheldon; and the “Shooting the Non Scripted Feature Film for Writing in the Edit” session is being organized by Benjamin Kasulke.

Meanwhile, the “Branded Documentary: Cause Marketing’s Best Media?” session is organized by David Modigliani; and the “Creating the Code: A BBC Transmedia Documentary” panel is being organized by Adrian Hon.

The film segment of SXSW takes place from March 9-17. For a full list of the panels confirmed so far, check out: http://sxsw.com/film/2012_panels

Tags: Austin, Bob Marley, Kevin Macdonald, Kino Lorber, Marley, South by Southwest, SXSW, Texas