BEATLES MAGAZINE: 2025 SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL OFFICIAL SELECTION ‘ONE TO ONE: JOHN & YOKO’

Monday, 6 January 2025

2025 SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL OFFICIAL SELECTION ‘ONE TO ONE: JOHN & YOKO’

The 2025 Sundance Film Festival Spotlight program has announced the official selection of ‘One to One: John & Yoko’

Next year’s festival will take place January 23rd-February 2nd in Park City, Utah.

One to One: John & Yoko
An exploration of the seminal and transformative 18 months that one of music’s most famous couples — John Lennon and Yoko Ono — spent living in Greenwich Village, New York City, in the early 1970s.

One to One: John & Yoko, which premiered at the 2024 Venice Film Festival, is a remarkable gem that will captivate even the most devoted Lennon and Ono fans. At its core is the masterfully restored footage of the charity concert benefiting disabled children, the only full-length performance Lennon gave after leaving The Beatles. Co-directors Kevin Macdonald (Life in a Day 2020, 2021 Sundance Film Festival) and Sam Rice-Edwards weave a treasure trove of unseen personal archives, offering an intimate yet vibrant glimpse into Lennon and Ono’s newly established New York life. While they spent time watching TV and exploring the highs and lows of American culture and politics, they were also deeply engaged: creating music, resisting deportation threats, and connecting with radical thinkers.—Ania Trzebiatowska

Credits:

Director: Kevin Macdonald
Editor and Co-director: Sam Rice-Edwards
Cinematography: David Katznelson
Producers: Peter Worsley, Kevin Macdonald, Alice Webb
Consulting Producer: Simon Hilton
Executive Producers: Steve Condie, David Joseph, Marc Robinson, Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner
100 minutes | English

ONE TO ONE, set in New York in 1972, explores John & Yoko’s musical, personal, artistic, social, and political world set against the backdrop of a turbulent era in American history. At the core of the film is the One to One Charity Concert for Special Needs Children, John Lennon’s only full length concert between the final Beatles concert in 1966 and his death. The film includes a wealth of previously unseen Lennon archives including personal phone calls, home movies filmed by John & Yoko, as well as restored and remastered footage from the One to One Concert with remixed audio overseen by Sean Ono Lennon.

Kevin Macdonald: “I wanted to make a film that would surprise and delight even the most dedicated Lennon/Ono fan by focusing on one transformative period in their lives and telling the tale through their own words, images and music. Built around the beautiful 16mm film footage of the only full-length concert John gave after leaving the Beatles (re-scanned and re-mastered so it is unrecognizable for those who have seen the 1980’s vhs release) I hope the film will introduce the audience to a more intimate version of John and Yoko – while also reflecting their politically radical and experimental sides.”

Sean Ono Lennon: “This film is not just about John and Yoko’s last concert at Madison Square Garden, it is an intimate window into their lives as they attempted to resettle in America while also participating in some fairly radical activism. This film amazingly speaks to the era we find ourselves in today, a moment of great political conflict and unnecessary wars. I’m excited that this film will premiere at the Venice Film Festival, and I am certain many people will find it an incredible historical journey.”

Mercury Studios CEO and Producer Alice Webb: “We are extremely honoured to premiere One to One: John & Yoko in Venice. It has been an absolute privilege to help tell the story of John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s activism during a time of great challenge. While our film spotlights a moment in 1972, the message and passion of John and Yoko’s work is timeless, and so we hope this film will be too.

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