Multi-Part Documentary Will Be Distributed by Sony Music Vision in Partnership with Columbia Records
September 26, 2024 – New York, NY – Sony Music Vision, in partnership with Columbia Records, Jigsaw Productions and The Kennedy/Marshall Company, today announced the start of production for the definitive multi-part documentary on living legend Barbra Streisand. Directed by fellow EGOT filmmaker Frank Marshall and produced by Oscar-winning Alex Gibney, the project will offer an intimate and comprehensive exploration of every facet of the iconic multi-hyphenate, who, in a career spanning six decades, has excelled in every area of entertainment.
The production has been granted unprecedented access to Streisand’s personal archives, including hundreds of hours of personal, never-before-seen video, photographs, audio recordings, and personal keepsakes from throughout her acclaimed career. Utilizing this treasure trove of archival materials alongside contemporary verité, the documentary will provide an in depth look of Streisand’s star studded past and her current artistic endeavors.
Among the handful of EGOT winners, Streisand has one of the greatest and most recognizable voices in the history of popular music. She won her first Oscar at 27 years old, has been Grammy-nominated 46 times, and with Yentl she became the first woman to write, produce, direct, and star in a major motion picture. The documentary will explore her journey from her childhood in Brooklyn to her first star-making appearances in New York nightclubs to her breakout performance in Funny Girl on stage and winning the Oscar for that performance on film. Streisand is an active recording artist and in 2024 she was recognized with the SAG Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2024.
The documentary is a co-production of Jigsaw Productions and The Kennedy/Marshall Company. Producers include Alex Gibney, Frank Marshall, Aly Parker, Michele Farinola, Tom Mackay, and Jay Landers. The film is presented and distributed by Sony Music Vision in partnership withColumbia Records. Ms. Streisand signed with Columbia Records in 1962, represented by Marty Erlichman who continues in that capacity.
Barbra Streisand said, “For years I’ve been thinking about the best way to share the vast amount of content I’ve been safely storing in my vault. These films, photos and music masters — many never seen or heard by the public — hold some of my most cherished memories. I’m so pleased that producer Alex Gibney and director Frank Marshall have agreed to take this journey with me. My appreciation to Tom Mackay, head of Sony Music’s Premium Content team, for his belief in the project. And especially to Sony Music Chairman Rob Stringer who has unwaveringly supported so many of my creative endeavors.”
“I’m thrilled to be working with Alex again and to have the opportunity to bring Barbra’s incredible life story to the screen,” said Frank Marshall. “We have been given unprecedented access to archival footage from decades of her groundbreaking career and intimate visibility to the trailblazing she continues to do in life today. Uncovering these remarkable moments illustrate why she has become an enduring icon to a global audience of all generations.”
Gibney added, “People have been talking about the need for the definitive documentary on Barbra Streisand for years. After a series of wonderful conversations and rigorous research, we are moving forward with Frank Marshall at the helm. I am delighted to produce this film on Barbra, a legendary singer, extraordinary actor, director, and political activist who inspires us all. Did I forget to mention that she’s a great storyteller who is funny as hell?”
Krista Wegener of Sony Music Vision will lead global sales for the documentary.
About Barbra Streisand
Barbra Streisand’s achievements as a singer, actor, director, producer, screenwriter, author, and songwriter, have been rewarded with two Oscars, five Emmys, ten Grammys, including the Legend Award and the Lifetime Achievement Award, a Tony Award, eleven Golden Globes, including the Cecil B. DeMille Award, three Peabody Awards, and the Directors Guild of America Award for her 1994 TV special, Barbra: The Concert. With Yentl, she became the first woman to direct, produce, write, and star in a major motion picture, and the first woman to win a Golden Globe Award for Best Director. Likewise, she is the first female composer to receive an Academy Award for Best Original Song, for “Evergreen (Love Theme from A Star Is Born).”
Barbra has also received the American Film Institute Life Achievement Award and the Kennedy Center Honors. She’s been awarded the National Medal of Arts from President Clinton, the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Obama, and France’s Légion d’Honneur.
Throughout her life, Barbra has been a passionate advocate for the causes she believes in. She created the Streisand Foundation to advance her philanthropic interests, ranging from gender equality, human rights, and voting rights, to protecting our environment and heeding the dangers of nuclear proliferation. She founded the Barbra Streisand Women’s Heart Center at Cedars-Sinai to support research and raise awareness about women’s heart disease. Recently, she has endowed the Barbra Streisand Institute at UCLA, to examine the critical issues of our time such as truth in the public sphere, the impact of climate change, the dynamics of intimacy and power between women and men, and the impact of art on the culture.
About Sony Music Vision
At Sony Music Vision, we bring film and television storytelling to life for our industry-leading creative talent and iconic music catalog around the world. We pair world class filmmakers with groundbreaking and legendary artists to create, finance, produce and distribute powerful content that features unique access to our archives and vast portfolio of music. A full-service content studio, we collaborate globally across the Sony entertainment companies to engage audiences with premium film and TV projects, including documentary and narrative feature films, as well as television specials and unscripted and scripted series.
About The Kennedy/Marshall Company
THE KENNEDY/MARSHALL COMPANY Established in 1991 by veteran producers Kathleen Kennedy and Frank Marshall, The Kennedy/Marshall Company is behind award-winning films THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON, LINCOLN, and SULLY as well as blockbuster franchises INDIANA JONES, JURASSIC WORLD, and JASON BOURNE to name a few. The Documentary Division was created to tell non-fiction stories with the same passion and expertise. Past projects include SINATRA: ALL OR NOTHING AT ALL (HBO), Emmy-nominated docuseries and documentary LAUREL CANYON: A PLACE IN TIME (MGM+) and THE BEE GEES: HOW CAN YOU MEND A BROKEN HEART (HBO), and most recently Emmy-winning films THE BEACH BOYS (DISNEY+) and THE REDEEM TEAM (NETFLIX), Grammy-winning documentary JAZZ FEST: A NEW ORLEANS STORY, as well as RATHER (NETFLIX), THE SPACE RACE (NAT GEO), MR. A & MR. M: THE STORY OF A&M RECORDS (MGM+), and CAROLE KING & JAMES TAYLOR: JUST CALL OUT MY NAME (CNN).
About Jigsaw Productions
Jigsaw Productions is helmed by Academy Award®-winning filmmaker Alex Gibney, considered one of the most prolific and provocative documentary filmmakers of our time. Jigsaw has produced a long list of high-profile documentary films, including the Emmy-winning Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief, the Oscar-winning Taxi to the Dark Side, the Oscar-nominated Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room, as well as Zero Days, Divide and Conquer: The Story of Roger Ailes, The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley, The Crime of the Century, Totally Under Control, two-part documentaryAgents of Chaos; and the Emmy-winning feature, The Forever Prisoner. Jigsaw’s slate of highly visible TV series includes: on Netflix, an investigative series Dirty Money, two highly acclaimed food series, Cooked, with Michael Pollan, and Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat, based on the book by Samin Nosrat; and top-rated How to Change your Mind, based on Michael Pollen’s book of the same name; on Discovery, in association with Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment, Why We Hate; on AMC, Hip Hop: Songs That Shook America; on Epix, the Emmy-nominated Laurel Canyon; on Hulu, the scripted series The Looming Tower, based on Lawrence Wright’s 2006 book of the same name; and on HBO, Unveiled: Surviving La Luz del Mundo. Jigsaw also produced the duPont-Columbia Award-winning podcast, The Line as well as Search Engine, included on the best podcasts lists in 2023 by Vulture, Time, The Economist, and Vogue. Jigsaw has produced several music documentaries including Finding Fela!, Mr.Dynamite: The Rise of James Brown, Sinatra: All or Nothing, and most recently In Restless Dreams: The Music of Paul Simon, premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2023 and is now available on MGM+.
Wise Guys: David Chase & The Sopranos, Jigsaw’s two-part documentary on the creator of the iconic series, debuted at the Tribeca Film Festival in June 2024 and is currently available on HBO Max. Jigsaw’s most recent feature documentary The Bibi Files premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2024 and is seeking distribution. In June of 2020, Brian Grazer and Ron Howard’s Imagine made a substantial investment in Jigsaw Productions making it a subsidiary of Imagine Entertainment.
Media Contacts:
Sony Music Vision
Devan Schulte
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Columbia Records
Kimberly Harris
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Barbra Streisand
Ken Sunshine
Jason Lee
Jennifer Lowe
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