Jerry Garcia Doc Still Has a Long Way to Go

Why is the fundraising target for Malcolm Leo's independent documentary about Grateful Dead singer, songwriter and guitarist Jerry Garcia set at an astronomical $400,000? Because most of it will go, if successfully crowdsourced, to music and image licensing.

Leo has great anchor material for Jerry: The Movie – a two-hour 1987 interview with Garcia that has largely never been seen by the public. What's more, it was shot on 16mm film by Russell Carpenter, then at the very beginning of his career. Carpenter would go on to work as cinematographer on Titanic (1997) and Charlie's Angels (2000).



There is still a full month left for Deadheads to get behind the project. Leo is very much hoping that the band's devoted fans will heed the Kickstarter call:

We wanted to make this movie outside of the Hollywood system, free of their notes, politics and happy endings. So we asked ourselves, what would Jerry do? We posed the question to anybody who would listen and the answers were varied — sometimes brilliant, often funny and occasionally wild. Our conclusion: leave it in the hands of the Deadheads.
 

The Garcia clan has given the project its blessings and will grant Leo full access to the family archives. Project producer John Hartmann meanwhile long ago promoted the first six concerts The Grateful Dead ever played in LA.

[Jerry: The Movie]