A new British/Irish documentary on Grace Jones is in the pipeline

She’s one of the most compelling singers to ever grab a microphone and glare down the barrel of an audience, but how much do we really know about Grace Jones?

A new British and Irish co-production marks the first documentary made on the icon. Sophie Fiennes will direct Grace Jones: The Musical Of My Life, with the BFI Film Fund and the Irish Film Board co-funding.

It's big news for Katie Holly (Irish Pictorial Weekly, The Savage Eye) of Blinder Films, who takes on her most interesting project to date as producer on this doc, alongside Emilie Blézat and Fiennes. Holly previously collaborated with Fiennes as producer on The Pervert's Guide To Ideology.

It’s also a spectacularly cool project for the IFB to be involved with. The subject matter is fascinating, the demand is obvious, the audience reach is global, and the press will write itself. High profile music documentaries occupy an increasingly crowded field, but a feature on Grace Jones will already be sticking its Philip Treacy-crowned head well above the parapet in terms of publicity and audience intrigue.

So far we know that this documentary will be structured around musical sequences of Jones performing, as well as a focus on her home country of Jamaica. Even the idea of an “official” documentary on Grace Jones is pretty damn exciting; the music, the iconography, the fashion, the stories, the performances, the stare. Jones herself will narrate the documentary.

The announcement of the film’s production promises “an intimate, electrifying journey that moves between performance, family, artist, and gypsy”.