‘Milli Vanilli’ director Luke Korem wanted to show ‘the human side’ of notorious music duo [Exclusive Video Interview]
“I’m a child of the ’90s and Milli Vanilli is something that made an indelible mark on pop culture,” remembers filmmaker Luke Korem about the subject of his music documentary “Milli Vanilli.” “I came to find out that most of us know the headline of Milli Vanilli, but very few of us actually know the story.” We talked with Korem as part of our “Meet the Experts” TV directors panel. Watch our exclusive video interview above.
“Milli Vanilli” tells the story of the notorious music duo whose Grammy for Best New Artist was revoked once it was revealed that they didn’t sing their own music. Members Fab Morvan and Rob Pilatus were widely ridiculed for it, but were they actually the perpetrators or victims of the scheme? “Most people want to laugh at these guys and make them out to be a joke, and not think about the fact that they were part of this giant machine that sold this lie,” Korem explains. “And so I really wanted to dive into that and also show the human side of these two guys who were just in their early 20s when this whole thing happened.”
Interviews with Morvan form the “spine” of the documentary, but Korem was determined to create an “objective portrait.” So he decided “to bring everybody in and ask them for their side of the story … There are conflicting narratives,” but Morvan ultimately agreed to participate: “He just said, I see that you want to tell the full story and the truth.” Unfortunately, Pilatus died in 1998 of a drug and alcohol overdose, so he wasn’t around to share his point of view, but the film includes him anyway. “We tracked down some audio,” the filmmaker remembers. “He did an interview about 30 days before he died … in which he spoke candidly about his life, and that became our way … to bring his voice alive and his spirit alive in the film.”
But Korem doesn’t impose his own opinions onto the material. “You ultimately have to let the camera show the audience. You know, the camera doesn’t lie,” he says. But “we allowed people to share their side. And I think that the audience appreciates that. They appreciate when you don’t force one side. And I had no horse in the race. I just wanted to tell a well rounded portrait.”
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