Magnolia Pictures has acquired the North American rights to the new documentary One to One: John & Yoko. The film focuses on the eventful 18-month period that John Lennon and wife Yoko Ono spent living in New York City’s Greenwich Village neighborhood in 1971 and ’72.
Videos by American Songwriter
The movie, which got its world premiere at Italy’s Venice Film Festival in August 2024, will open exclusively at select IMAX theaters on April 11. After a wider theatrical release, One to One will premiere on HBO and the Max streaming service in late 2025.
The documentary also will be shown at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah. The screening dates are January 23, 24, and 29, and February 1.
Lennon’s One to One Concerts, which took place on August 30, 1972, at Madison Square Garden in New York City, serve as a launching point for the film. The two shows were the only full-length performances Lennon ever gave after the breakup of The Beatles. John was accompanied at these concerts by Yoko, The Plastic Ono Band, Elephant’s Memory, and some special guests.
The movie features fully restored footage of the One to One shows. John and Yoko’s son, Sean Ono Lennon, remixed the audio from the concerts. The film also boasts previously unseen video and unheard audio from Lennon’s archives. The material includes phone calls and home movies recorded by Lennon and Ono themselves.
One to One: John & Yoko was directed by Kevin Macdonald, who won an Oscar in 2000 for Best Documentary Feature for One Day in September. That film examined the murder of 11 Israeli athletes by Palestinian terrorists at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich, Germany.
Comments from Magnolia Pictures CEOs and Macdonald
Magnolia Pictures co-CEOs Eamonn Bowles and Dori Begley issued a joint statement about the documentary and its director.
“One to One: John & Yoko is a revelation,” they said. “Kevin Macdonald has given us an incredibly fresh, marvelously human and revealing look at the iconic couple.”
Macdonald, meanwhile, noted that he was “thrilled” that One to One was receiving an “ambitious theatrical release.”
He added, “This is a movie about music and love and politics—and about immersing yourself in the year of 1972—a period in time that feels uncannily like the world we are currently inhabiting. And more than anything else I’m grateful to Sean Lennon and Mercury Studios for entrusting the incredible One to One concert to me.”
More Background on the Documentary
Lennon and Ono moved to New York City in 1971. By ’72, they were residing in an apartment on Bank Street in Greenwich Village. The film offers an intimate look at the couple’s musical, artistic, social, and political activities at this time. Part of the movie is set inside a replica of the Bank Street apartment that was constructed specially for the project.
You can check out a trailer for One to One: John & Yoko at the Mercury Films YouTube channel.
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