The director of a documentary on Sinéad O’Connor’s life has spoken about the singer’s influence on her.
The Irish musician’s death was announced by her family on Thursday night, and tributes from fans and celebrities who adored her work quickly flooded social media.
The director of the film Nothing Compares has now spoken out about her astonishment at the abrupt demise.
Director Kathryn Ferguson expressed her shock at the news of O’Connor’s death just hours after it was disclosed.
‘I just found out an hour ago. I’m devastated to hear the desperate news about Sinead,’ she said.
‘Our film, really for me, it was a love letter to Sinéad.
‘It was made over many, many years. And made because of the impact she had made on me as a young girl growing up in Ireland,’ she added when speaking to BBC Radio 4’s Front Row show.
The film, which opens this weekend, follows O’Connor’s difficult life, beginning with her youth in Dublin under the care of a mentally ill mother and continuing through the care system.
It will also chronicle the narrative of her battle with an image-obsessed music business, which attempted and failed to subdue her, leading to additional outbursts, including recurrent criticism of the Catholic Church.
Archival information and testimonies from friends and musical colleagues provide light on her five-decade career.
Ferguson stated that she was introduced to O’Connor’s music at an early age, which influenced her.
‘It was through her music, my father introduced me to Sinead’s music in the late 80s, her album The Lion And The Cobra was played on repeat as we drove around Belfast in the late 80s, and it became this visceral soundtrack to my childhood,’ she explained.
‘Then in the early 90s my friends and I really discovered her for a second time and could really see how she looked, heard what she had to say, and she became this huge icon of ours, and someone we were so proud of.’
Earlier this week, the filmmaker said that one of the film’s focal points was the iconic tear-up of a portrait of Pope John Paul II during a visit on Saturday Night Live in 1993.
It examines ‘why things happened as they did’, with the years from 1986 to 1993 a particular focal point as the film tries to ‘go back and look at the cause and effect’ of some of her actions, and the intense fallout at times.
Nothing Compares will be released on Saturday on Sky Documentaries and Now.
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Source My Celebrity Life.