Nina Simone Netflix Documentary Premieres In 2015

Nina Simone’s documentary, What Happened Miss Simone, is going to be hitting Netflix at some point in 2015. The film, directed by Liz Garbus and produced by RadicalMedia, will show the life and times of Nina Simone as she rose through the ranks and eventually became one of the most influential singers of her generation.

Some fans of Nina might say it’s a little too late, considering the singer died in 2003 at the age of 70. Garbus recently talked to Variety about the project and her excitement that the film is making its way to Netflix.

“I’m thrilled that Netflix has embraced the incredible story of Nina Simone and partnered with RadicalMedia on this film,” said Garbus, whose past work includes The Farm: Angola, USA and Bobby Fischer Against the World.

The filmmaker added that for millions of fans, “Nina feels like a treasured secret. With ‘What Happened, Miss Simone?,’ I’m excited to help bring her passion, her music and her story to the world.”

One of the reasons Nina is so beloved is because she was almost as good a civil rights activist as she was a musician. Simone blazed a trail for a number of artists who came after her in the music world. Nina Simone also helped blaze a trail for black performers that came after her as well as those who weren’t performers at all.

Lisa Nishimura, Netflix’s vice president of original documentary programming, talked in a statement about what it felt was important about putting together this documentary about Nina.

“In ‘What Happened, Miss Simone?,’ Liz Garbus paints a brave and provocative picture of Nina Simone — artist, civil rights activist and heroine — in a film that we’ve loved from Day 1 and are proud to bring to our viewers around the world.”

This particular move by the streaming media company is just the latest in a battle it seems to be fighting — and winning — against major cable companies. The company is putting out more original content all the time. Documentaries are something the firm has been working on more recently, after spending quite a bit of its attention on programming that was more story driven.

2015 could end up being a big year for Netflix for a number of reasons. Next year will bring a number of Marvel Comics-based series as well as a new season of House of Cards. The Nina Simone documentary will just be icing on the cake.