John Lennon, Yoko Ono latest documentary offers new take on relationship

John Lennon and Yoko Ono have already been a subject of multiple documentaries but Kevin Macdonald has taken an innovative approach in One to One: John & Yoko.

The director documented their journey for search of Ono’s kidnapped daughter, Kyoko, as a focus of the film.

Macdonald co-directed the documentary with Sam Rice-Edwards and it showcases their first 18 months in New York after it had undergone much sociopolitical changes.

The new documentary is a non-linear footage with tape recordings and concert videos woven together from the period. 

While talking to People Magazine, the director noted that TV was an important character to include in the movie, since it played a big part in Lennon’s life.

“I heard some interviews with John talking about how much TV was important to him at that time in particular,” said Macdonald.

“I thought that would be an interesting way to make a film about the America which John is learning about and living in, and how that changes him. I built a reconstruction of the apartment he was living in when he first moved to New York, where he watched TV on this very big television at the end of his bed.”

The documentary feels like the viewer is in Ono and Lennon’s apartment from that period, which is what Macdonald aimed as he said, “I wanted to really try to get inside the head of John and Yoko at that period.” 

The documentary came out on April 11th.