One of the hottest tickets for this summer is the USA/UK coproduction Tina by documentary filmmakers Dan Lindsay and T. J. Martin. The film stars Tina Turner as herself and the directors have promised a personal journey through the life and career of this legendary singer and cultural icon that has never been seen before.

The official release date for the film in USA and UK was March 2021 but with lockdowns closing or restricting the operation of most cinemas the Berlinale Summer special audience will be one of the first big live audiences to see the film on the big screen this summer.

Angela Bassett, Oprah Winfrey, Kurt Loder, Katori Hall, Erwin Bach, Carl Arrington, Jimmy Thomas, Le'Juene Fletcher, Rhonda Graam, Roger Davies and Terry Britten all appear alongside Tina Turner.

In an interview with the publication Today, Turner compared the film to her 2020 memoir Happiness Becomes You. Tina Turner is one of the greatest survivors in the world of modern music.  Starting out in R&B she moved on to record-breaking sell-out arena tours of the 1980s. The documentary makers promise to take the audience into the private world of the legendary figure.

It is always difficult to tackle the life of a legend but if any two filmmakers are qualified to do this it is Dan Lindsay and T J Martin. Lindsay won the Oscar for Best Documentary Feature in 2012 for the sports documentary Undefeated, which he made in collaboration with T.J. Martin. Together with Martin, he also won an Emmy for Exceptional Merit in Documentary Filmmaking for his film LA 92 in 2017.

T J Martin graduated in American Cultural Studies from Western Washington University where he co-directed his first documentary, A Day in the Hype of America, with Brian Quist. He has collaborated with Dan Lindsay since 2007. The directors have brought to the project cinematographers Dimitri Karakatsansis and Megan Stacey. The film is produced by HBO Documentary Films and Lightbox Entertainment and distributed by HBO and Altitude Film Distribution.